Hindu woman befriended by deception, exploited and pressured for conversion by Muslim man in Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Case ID : d326f10 | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 7 January, 2026

Case ID : d326f10

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

7 January, 2026

Hindu woman befriended by deception, exploited and pressured for conversion by Muslim man in Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Blackmailed to convert

Forced conversion before marriage

Case Summary

A Hindu woman faced befriending by deception, extortion, physical exploitation, and religious conversion pressure by a Muslim man, Salman, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Salman created a fake Instagram profile under the name Ajay Yadav to establish contact with the woman, and during the course of communication, he threatened to share her private photographs to coerce her into submission for religious conversion. It is important to note that while several media outlets reported that the Muslim accused posed under the identity of “Ajay Yadav,” Zee News stated that he used the name “Aakash” to deceive the victim. The woman, who had been separated from her husband for nine years and had three children, engaged in communication with him, trusting his assurances of marriage. Over time, Salman took money from her under various pretexts, including promises of support and financial assistance. The woman began to notice inconsistencies in Salman’s background and statements. She cross-checked his social media activity and profile details, which did not align with the identity he had presented. She observed that he avoided direct questions about his family and personal history. Through persistent verification, she discovered that Salman was married with children and that his real name was Salman, not Ajay Yadav. Following this exposure, Salman took the woman to a hotel in the Sikim‑140 area under the pretext of meeting. Salman pressured the woman to convert to Islam and reiterated threats to share private photographs to enforce compliance. Distressed by his behaviour, the woman involved her family and reported the matter to the police. Bajrang Dal activists intervened, apprehended him, and handed him over to the police, who initiated an investigation in line with applicable legal provisions. Indore Police registered cases under sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to rape and blackmail, and under the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act and Salman was arrested. At the time of reporting, the investigation was ongoing. Police examined digital evidence, social media communications, and witness statements.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been documented unde the selected primary category: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under this, the selected secondary category is: Man pretends to be Hindu. Under this, the selected tertiary category is: 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. Another selected secondary category is: Brainwashed and/or groomed. Under this, the selecetd tertiary category is: Rape and sexual assault/harrasment. 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. Another selected secondary category 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. Another selected secondary category 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. This case can be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime because every element of the abuse, coercion, and manipulation was directly connected to the victim’s Hindu identity and the accused’s desire to exploit that identity. Firstly, the accused, Muslim man Salman, targeted the victim specifically because she was Hindu. He created a fake Instagram profile under the name Ajay Yadav and initiated communication with her, presenting himself as a potential suitor. The selection of a Hindu woman as his target demonstrates that his actions were deliberately aimed at exploiting her religious identity. His strategy relied on building trust with the victim by presenting himself as someone from a different religious or social background than he actually belonged to. This initial deception established a foundation for religiously motivated exploitation rather than a general criminal act, because the victim was chosen for her Hindu faith. Secondly, the accused applied pressure for religious conversion to Islam. Over the course of their interactions, he coerced her to abandon her Hindu faith, linking his demands for conversion to threats and manipulation. He reinforced these pressures with promises of marriage and financial support, attempting to make her abandon her religious beliefs under duress. The use of religious conversion as a coercive tool highlights that the crime was motivated by religious bias rather than solely personal gain or financial exploitation. The focus on converting her specifically from Hinduism to Islam shows a targeted attempt to undermine her religion, which is the defining characteristic of a religiously motivated hate crime. Thirdly, the accused used threats and intimidation tied directly to her religious identity. He threatened to distribute her private photographs to enforce compliance with his demands, including conversion to Islam. This demonstrates that the coercion was not merely about extortion or personal control, but was religiously contextualised, aiming to manipulate and intimidate her as a Hindu woman. The combination of digital manipulation, physical meetings, and threats against her privacy amplifies the religious dimension of the crime. It shows that the victim’s religion was central to the perpetrator’s method of exploitation. In conclusion, the case involves deception, extortion, threats, and coercion, all explicitly tied to the victim’s Hindu identity. The selection of the victim, the methods used, and the focus on religious conversion collectively demonstrate that the perpetrator’s actions were motivated by religious animus. This clearly classifies the incident as a religiously motivated hate crime, rather than a crime of opportunity or personal gain alone. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurred, rather than when the media reports it. However, in this case, media reports have not specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, 8th January 2026, the date of media reporting, has been selected as the indicative incident date.