Pregnant Hindu woman dies by suicide after being harassed and assaulted by Christian in-laws for refusing to convert

Case ID : d06caf6 | Location : Sangli, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 9 June, 2021

Case ID : d06caf6

Sangli, Maharashtra, India

9 June, 2021

Pregnant Hindu woman dies by suicide after being harassed and assaulted by Christian in-laws for refusing to convert

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion after marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Suicide for being forced to or pressured to convert

Case Summary

In Kupwad, Sangli, Maharashtra, a seven-month pregnant Hindu woman named Rutuja Sukumar Rajage was driven to suicide by her in-laws due to relentless pressure and harassment to convert to Christianity. Rutuja was deceived into marriage by a family who concealed their Christian identity. She was also physically assaulted for resisting conversion. As per reports, the accused were identified as Sukumar Suresh Rajge, Rutuja’s husband, her mother-in-law, Alka Suresh Rajge, and her father-in-law, Suresh Rajaram Rajge. Rutuja married Sukumar Rajge in 2021, unaware that he and his family were Christians. After the marriage in June 2021, Rutuja’s mother-in-law, Alka, refused to allow her to celebrate her first Vat Purnima festival, a significant Hindu celebration for married women. Shortly after, Sukumar left for work with the Merchant Navy. Following this, Rutuja’s in-laws did not permit her to celebrate her first Diwali after marriage, which is when she discovered their true religious identity. From that point, they began pressuring her to convert to Christianity, telling her, “Diwali is not celebrated in our house. You come with us to pray in the church.” They also prevented her from studying for competitive exams and repeatedly harassed her, insisting she pray and worship at church. During this period, Rutuja became pregnant. Even then, her in-laws pressured her to perform Garbha Sanskar, an ancient Hindu prenatal ritual, according to Christian practices. Her husband, Sukumar, also physically assaulted her for not complying with his and his family’s demands to convert to Christianity. The ongoing harassment and pressure pushed Rutuja to the brink of suicide. Before her death, her father tried to intervene and reason with her in-laws, including her husband. However, Rutuja, overwhelmed by the constant abuse and harassment, ultimately took her life by hanging herself at her residence. Following her death, Rutuja’s father filed a police complaint against her husband and in-laws. The police registered a case, acted promptly, and arrested the accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the hate crime database under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the first subcategory is - Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. 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. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. 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 situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The other subcategory selected 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 other subcategory selected is- Suicide for being forced to or pressured to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with a 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 pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, unable to bear the pressure/threat/violence being mounted by the non-Hindu partner to convert, the Hindu woman commits suicide. In such cases, often, threats are also given to the family members of the Hindu woman. Since such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim, leading to the woman committing suicide, these cases are categorized as a hate crime. In this case, Rutuja was deceived into marrying a man whose family concealed their Christian identity until after the wedding. This concealment indicates a deliberate intent to manipulate her religious understanding of the marriage. Post-marriage, her in-laws began pressuring her to abandon her Hindu practices and convert to Christianity. Her in-laws refused to let her celebrate essential Hindu festivals such as Vat Purnima and Diwali—rituals deeply tied to a Hindu woman’s spiritual and cultural identity. They insisted she attend church prayers and even attempted to Christianize Hindu prenatal rituals like Garbha Sanskar. Such actions constitute a direct denial of her religious freedom and were designed to erode her Hindu identity. These were not isolated incidents but part of a persistent campaign to compel religious conversion under coercion, placing this case squarely under the category of religiously motivated hate crime. Rutuja not only faced psychological pressure but also physical assault at the hands of her husband, Sukumar Rajge, for resisting conversion. The use of violence as a tool to force her into changing her religious beliefs constitutes a hate-driven assault. Her refusal to convert led to abuse—not as a matter of personal disagreement, but clearly because of her adherence to Hinduism. This specific targeting of her religious identity and violent enforcement of conversion efforts demonstrate that the motive behind the assault was not simply domestic conflict but religious intolerance and coercion. Ultimately, the relentless pressure, harassment, and violence mounted by her husband and in-laws pushed Rutuja—seven months pregnant—to take her own life. Suicide under such circumstances is not just a tragic end but the culmination of sustained, religiously motivated abuse. Her suicide was not the result of general marital discord; it was the direct consequence of her resistance to forced conversion and her in-laws’ refusal to accept her religious identity. The perpetrators' consistent actions—denying her festivals, altering sacred prenatal practices, inflicting physical violence, and isolating her religiously—are clear indicators that the abuse was rooted in religious bigotry. Her suicide is, therefore, a direct outcome of this hate-based coercion. Hence, this case is not merely domestic abuse but a textbook example of a religiously motivated hate crime, and rightly belongs in the Hate Crime database. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the woman’s ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.