Hindu woman exploited through systematic grooming, sexual violence and conversion pressure by Muslim shopkeeper in Akola, Maharashtra

Case ID : d3274f6 | Location : Akola, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 2 February, 2026

Case ID : d3274f6

Akola, Maharashtra, India

2 February, 2026

Hindu woman exploited through systematic grooming, sexual violence and conversion pressure by Muslim shopkeeper in Akola, Maharashtra

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Blackmailed to convert

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed

Case Summary

In Akola, a Muslim shopkeeper raped a Hindu woman, who was a regular customer of his shop. He recorded the obscene video, blackmailed and pressured her to convert to Islam. Several obscene videos of other women were found on the accused’s mobile phone. The incident came to light after a complaint against four Muslim men was filed by a Hindu married woman. The victim ran a beauty parlour, and she regularly used to visit the ‘Pari Bindi Ghar’ shop on the Gandhi Road area to buy beauty products. The accused, a Muslim shop owner, on the pretext of informing the victim about offers on products, took her mobile number. After that, the accused gradually gained her trust by approaching her for various reasons. Later, when the accused shopkeeper bought the woman’s husband’s four-wheeler, her trust in him grew even stronger. As stated in the complaint, the accused, on one occasion, when there was no one in the shop or the area, molested her and touched her at inappropriate places. Meanwhile, two friends of the accused started blackmailing the Hindu woman, saying that they had a video of the molestation incident. Threatening the victim about releasing the recorded video, the accused then took her to a flat in Dagdi Pool and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her. The accused recorded the sexual intercourse, and he used that video to blackmail the victim. The sexual harassment continued for a long time. The accused pressurised her to convert to Islam to delete the video by threats of making the obscene video viral. The complaint also stated that the woman paid as much as five lakh rupees to avoid defamation. Thereafter, the woman finally gathered courage and filed a complaint at the City Kotwali Police Station. As soon as the complaint was received, the police took immediate action and registered serious cases against Rahman alias Mohammad Mustafa Mohammad Salim Teli, Chandu Raju Wankhede and Imran Garagewala. Based on the complaint, the police arrested two accused, one of whom was admitted to the hospital for treatment. The remaining accused was absconding, and a search was underway while the investigation into this case was ongoing. Meanwhile, the police checked the mobile phone of the accused, and obscene photos and videos of many women were found on it. This included a woman known to the complainant. She also informed of being harassed and exploited in the same way. At the time of documenting this incident, the police registered a case against three accused. An investigation was underway to find out who the fourth suspect was, what his role had been and when a case would be registered against him. Police expressed the possibility that the names of more female victims might come to light if the investigation went deeper, as obscene photos and videos of several women were found on the accused’s mobile phone. Forensic examination of the mobile phone was underway.

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 here is - Blackmail to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert to another religion, owing to her religious identity as 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 second sub-category 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 pressurising 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 third sub-category is Brainwashed and/or groomed. Under this, the tertiary categories are: Rape and sexual assault/harassment, Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed. 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’ 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 are crimes, for 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 hate crimes. This case is a clear marker of a hate crime because the violence was not only sexual exploitation but also aimed at breaking the victim’s religious identity. The perpetrators used rape, blackmail, and threats of conversion as tools of domination. The accused groomed her, sexually exploited her and recorded obscene videos, which he later used to blackmail her for further sexual exploitation and religious conversion. These exploitations were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating a Hindu girl because of her faith, as he later blackmailed her for conversion. The target was not the victim as an individual, but her Hindu identity. The specific focus on her Hindu identity in the commission of these acts highlights the religious hatred underlying the crime, making it a religiously motivated offence. Most importantly, the accused attempted to force the victim to renounce her religion and convert to Islam. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. It was not a matter of personal choice; it was coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act was not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. It is important to mention here that in such cases, sexual violence and sustained harassment served a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The continuous pattern of intimidation, blackmail, threats, and social harassment was intended to break the victim down emotionally, physically, and psychologically, thereby weakening her ability to resist coercive demands for religious conversion. This conduct was not random or impulsive; it was systematic, targeted, and sustained, rooted in hostility towards the victim’s Hindu identity. The subsequent demand for conversion further demonstrated that the abuse and harassment were directed not merely at controlling the victim as an individual but at undermining and erasing her Hindu religious identity. Additionally, the accused and his associates escalated the abuse beyond the victim herself by deliberately targeting her social standing and religious community. They threatened to make her private videos viral on social media and to distribute obscene letters to damage her reputation and isolate her. Even her future husband was intimidated by threats to his life, creating fear among his family. This pattern of intimidation demonstrated that the accused was never interested in a genuine or consensual relationship with a Hindu girl; rather, the relationship functioned solely as a means for sexual exploitation, control, and religious conversion. The targeted use of humiliation, threats, and defamation because of the victim’s Hindu identity constituted a hate crime, as the harm was inflicted not only on the individual but also on her religious identity and social belonging. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. The pattern of grooming, sexual exploitation, harassment, intimidation, and enforced pressure for conversion demonstrated an intent to dominate and subjugate the victim because of her religious identity. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media, 3 February 2026.