Hindu woman coerced to convert to Islam, attacked on refusal by Muslim man in Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh

Case ID : d32741f | Location : Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 14 January, 2026

Case ID : d32741f

Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh, India

14 January, 2026

Hindu woman coerced to convert to Islam, attacked on refusal by Muslim man in Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for refusal to convert

Case Summary

A Hindu woman in Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh, was pressured, threatened and harassed for several days to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Raja alias Raja Mewati. The victim was also attacked with stones by the perpetrator when she refused to convert. This incident came to light when the victim mustered the courage and filed a complaint at the police station against Raja. She stated that for the past 15 days, her life had been a nightmare. According to the woman's complaint, her neighbour, Raja alias Raju Mewati, had constantly harassed her. The accused not only passed lewd comments towards her when she would go out for a walk, but also pressured her to convert to Islam. The victim said that the accused's actions did not stop there. He would often sit outside her house, knock on the door, and even throw stones at her if she resisted. The limit was reached when, two days ago, on 29 January 2026, the accused followed the woman while she was on her way to a temple and publicly threatened to kill her and her family if she did not convert to Islam. Initially, the family of the victim remained silent for fear of conflict and tension, but after the accused's increasing behaviour, the woman reached the Kotwali police station on Friday night, 30 January 2026, with her family and community members. Considering the seriousness of the matter, the police took immediate action and registered a case against the accused, Raja, under various sections of the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act 2021 and took him into custody. Kotwali Town Inspector Akhilesh Verma said that based on the woman's complaint, a case was registered against the accused, and he was taken into custody. The matter was then thoroughly investigated.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the first primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. Another primary category selected is- Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory selected is- Attacked for refusal to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, the victim refuses to succumb to the pressure/threats. Once the victim refuses, the perpetrator proceeds to attack/assault the victim owing to his/her refusal to convert. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The violence then is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of a non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing violence towards the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case exemplifies a religiously motivated hate crime as the Muslim accused targeted the Hindu woman specifically to dismantle her Hindu faith and impose Islam through force. The initial harassment, passing lewd comments during her walks and persistently pressuring her to convert stemmed from religious animosity, as the accused sought to strip her of her Hindu identity and religious autonomy. Forced conversion without genuine conviction violates the victim's right to practise her faith freely, turning personal belief into a battleground for dominance. Such acts embody hate by attacking the core of Hinduism, which emphasises individual spiritual choice over coercion, making this a direct assault on the victim's religious convictions and a broader threat to Hindu beliefs in voluntary devotion. The accused's pattern, sitting outside the victim's house, banging on her door repeatedly, issuing constant threats, and pressuring her to convert, constitutes prolonged coercion aimed at religious subjugation. These behaviours, all tied to demands for conversion, reveal deep-seated animosity of the perpetrator towards the victim and her religious identity, harassing her daily life to break her allegiance to her faith. This relentless campaign qualifies as a hate crime by exploiting religious difference to intimidate and dominate, violating India's constitutional protections for faith. When the victim resisted, the accused escalated to overt violence, culminating in publicly threatening to kill her and her family two days ago if she refused conversion, and pelting stones at her when she did not comply. This stone-throwing incident marks a clear, religiously motivated attack, using physical aggression to silence her refusal and enforce conversion. By weaponising violence against her Hindu adherence, the perpetrator transformed rejection of Islam into a punishable offence, highlighting hate driven by religious hostility. Such brutality not only endangers lives but erodes the victim's religious security, framing her faith as the enemy. Collectively, the lewd remarks, stalking, stone-pelting, and death threats form a hostile environment designed to eradicate the victim's Hindu identity, underscoring religiously fuelled hatred rather than mere personal dispute. These instances of targeted proselytisation activities stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths like Islam believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia tracker records the dates of incidents based on when the victim's ordeal begins rather than when it is reported by the media. In this case, media reports have not specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. It states that the victim filed a police complaint on 30 January 2026. While filing the complaint, she stated to the police that for the past 15 days, her life had been hell. Hence, based on this information, an indicative date of 15 January 2026 is selected as the date of the incident for documentation purposes only. This date is recorded to estimate the beginning of her suffering.