Hindu woman targeted by Muslim man masquerading as Hindu: pressured to convert to Islam; remove her 'OM' tattoo
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
31 December, 2023
Case Summary
In Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was lured, sexually exploited, and later pressured for religious conversion and removal of her Om tattoo by a Muslim man named Sartaj Siddiqui, who initially posed as a Hindu. According to the victim, she works at a private company and came in contact with the accused in 2024. The Muslim man contacted her by phone and said that he liked her and wanted to marry her. Initially, she ignored him, but eventually, they started talking, and he lured her and emotionally manipulated her into a romantic relationship by promising to marry her. When they began meeting in person, the woman discovered his real identity as a Muslim. However, by then, she had become deeply attached and was so emotionally and psychologically manipulated by the accused that she decided to stay in the relationship. Sartaj continued to manipulate her by false promises of marriage and repeatedly telling her that he loved her. Sartaj then made the Hindu woman leave her home, and they decided to stay with her in a rented room in the Nawabganj area, where they lived together in a live-in relationship for nearly 10 months. During this time, he continued to sexually exploit her and recorded private videos and photos. At first, when the Hindu woman pressured him for marriage, he kept on deflecting the question and made excuses. He then started telling the victim that he would only marry her if she converted to Islam and removed her OM tattoo. When the girl protested, Sartaj beat her up and threatened her by saying that he would leak her obscene pictures online, and her only option was to convert and marry him. Thus, the Hindu woman returned to her home and told Sartaj that she would only get back with him if he were to marry her. On April 31, 2025, Sartaj told her that he had marriage documents ready and asked the Hindu woman to come to his house. When the woman went to his house, there were no documents ready. Sartaj instead, used the opportunity to rape her and make photos and videos of the incident. He again exerted pressure on her to convert. When the Hindu woman refused to convert, he abandoned her and ran away. After the whole ordeal, the woman decided to approach the police. As of the date of writing this report, a case was registered by the police based on the woman's complaint. The investigation was ongoing.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - Name changed. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The second sub-category selected here is: - Forced conversion before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both the situations, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The third sub-category selected here is: - Assault or threat upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The fourth sub-category selected here is: - Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The fifth sub-category selected here is- Desecration of Hindu symbols in relationship. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces insult and desecration of her faith (Hinduism) and its symbol because of the inherent disregard for polytheism of the non-Hindu partner. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts desecrating the religious symbols of the Hindu partner out of spite for her faith. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The sixth sub-category selected here is: - Rape for refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. As the case may be, in such cases, the non-Hindu man forces himself sexually on the Hindu woman when she refuses his advances and pressures to convert her religion. The rape of the woman is often seen as either a punishment for the woman refusing to convert. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The seventh sub-category selected here is: - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being: - Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed and Rape and sexual assault/harassment. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was pressured for religious conversion and sexually exploited on false pretences by a Muslim man who deliberately posed as a Hindu. His malicious intent is evident from the outset as the accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. The accused deliberately entrapped the Hindu woman in a relationship and slowly manipulated her emotions to such an extent that, even after discovering his real religious identity, she continued to stay with him. This level of emotional manipulation points to systematic grooming, where the victim was psychologically conditioned to trust and remain attached to her abuser. Over time, he brainwashed her to the point where she wasn't able to see his deception. All his actions were a calculated strategy where the ultimate goal was religious conversion and sexual exploitation of a Hindu woman. His actions reflect a clear pattern of manipulation driven by malice towards the victim’s faith and identity. The use of blackmail to force conversion is a clear demonstration of religious hate, as it targets the victim's religious beliefs and seeks to erase her identity. He threatened to leak her obscene pictures online when she refused to convert proves how coercion and emotional blackmail are used as tools in religious conversion. This tactic of coercion and intimidation, combined with deceit and force, underscores the underlying agenda of religious conversions. These are not isolated or random incidents, but crimes deeply rooted in animosity towards the victim’s faith. Such cases are glaring examples of bigotry and hatred directed at the Hindu community. The demand to remove the ‘OM’ tattoo serves as a symbolic erasure of Hindu identity. The OM symbol is a sacred and deeply revered symbol in Hinduism, associated with spiritual purity. Pressuring him to remove it is not only an attempt at religious conversion but also a clear display of hostility and contempt towards the Hindu faith. Thus, forcing its removal was an attempt to sever her from her spiritual roots and cultural identity. He was trying to erase any visible markers of her Hindu faith, which was not only an attempt at religious conversion, but was also about subjugation and cultural annihilation. This case is a glaring example of how deep-seated intolerance can manifest in coercive actions and emotional blackmail, with the ultimate goal of religious subjugation and domination. The deliberate nature of the deception and the subsequent use of blackmail and threats to force conversion highlights the extent of disdain the accused harboured for the victim's faith, making this a clear case of religiously motivated hate. Disclaimer: The victim stated that she was in a relationship with the accused for the past one and a half years without mentioning an exact date. To document this case, we have used January 1, 2024, as the indicative date to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on June 11, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
