Hindu woman sexually exploited under pretext of marriage and forced to convert to Islam by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case ID : d32755f | Location : Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 21 March, 2025

Case ID : d32755f

Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, India

21 March, 2025

Hindu woman sexually exploited under pretext of marriage and forced to convert to Islam by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Blackmailed to convert

Case Summary

In Amroha's Gajraula area in Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was deceived into a relationship by a Muslim man named Sahil, who posed as a Hindu. The accused sexually exploited her and captured obscene pictures and videos of the victim. Following this, he forced her to convert to Islam and began blackmailing her once she cut all ties with him. The perpetrator contacted the victim over Instagram in 2025, introduced himself as a local Hindu man, and gradually built a relationship. He also deceived her by showing her pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses and reciting Hanuman Chalisa. Once trust was established, he proposed marriage and engaged in sexual relations with her. On 22 March 2025, the accused invited her to his home to meet him, but then lied and took her in his car to a concrete bridge. The woman became pregnant as a result of the sexual relationship. She told Sahil about this and asked him to marry her. Following this, the accused forcibly administered abortion pills to her, telling her that marriage would take time. Meanwhile, he kept sexually exploiting her and also captured her obscene photos and videos. The accused also exploited the victim economically by taking away her money and gold jewellery, such as a nose ring and earrings. One day, when the victim called Sahil, a woman picked up the call and introduced herself as Sahil's wife. On this, the Hindu victim came to know that Sahil was a Muslim man and was already married. When she confronted Sahil, he told the victim that he would marry her only after she converted to Islam. He threatened to kill her on refusal. He also said that Junaid, Sahil's friend, would kill her family if she refused to convert to Islam. The woman rejected this demand and stopped speaking to Sahil. Following this, Junaid contacted the victim and began blackmailing her with her obscene videos, stating that he would circulate them if she did not talk to Sahil and agree to his demands. Distressed by all this, the woman narrated her ordeal to her family. Following this, the victim filed a police complaint against Sahil and Junaid on 4 February 2026. The Inspector in charge, Manoj Kumar, said that in this case, on the complaint of the woman, a First Information Report was registered against Sahil and Junaid.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. 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 other subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- 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. The other subcategory selected 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 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- 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. This case constituted a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, as a Hindu woman in Amroha's Gajraula area, Uttar Pradesh, was deliberately deceived into a relationship, sexually exploited, blackmailed, and pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Sahil, who posed as a Hindu. Firstly, Sahil deliberately concealed his Muslim identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with the Hindu victim. This deception manifested clear bias and malicious intent towards her religion. By hiding his true faith and posing as a Hindu, showing pictures of gods and goddesses and reciting Hanuman Chalisa, he exploited her trust under false pretences. This premeditated tactic of adopting a fake Hindu identity to ensnare a Hindu woman reflected profound disdain for Hinduism and its customs, rooted in deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Such identity concealment served not as mere personal deception but as a calculated strategy driven by religious profiling. Sahil knew the victim, as a Hindu, would most likely reject him upon learning his real identity, so he lied to circumvent this barrier. This pointed directly to a religiously motivated intent, targeting her solely for her faith background. Secondly, after gaining control, Sahil sexually exploited her, made obscene videos, and used them to blackmail her for conversion. These acts are intertwined inseparably with their religious dimension, as the blackmail explicitly demanded she abandon Hinduism for Islam. The sexual exploitation acted as coercion and domination, shattering her autonomy to render her ripe for religious subjugation. The conversion demand proved the abuse targeted her Hindu identity, not random predation. Thirdly, in Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited, which is why Sahil pressured the Hindu victim for religious conversion, a blatant violation of her religious autonomy. This demonstrated that the Muslim perpetrator specifically targeted her for sexual exploitation and then blackmailed her to abandon Hinduism. Often in such cases, sexual violence or blackmail served a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break her down emotionally, physically, and spiritually for conversion. This systematic assault was not random violence; rather, it was rooted in religious animosity. Fourthly, coercing the Hindu victim to renounce her faith under threats, including death threats from Sahil and his associate Junaid, mounted a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. Far from personal choice, this intimidation embodied hostility towards her Hindu roots, seeking to erase her faith entirely and marking it as a religiously motivated crime. These actions arose from inherent antagonism towards the victim's Hindu faith, as Abrahamic doctrines view non-adherents as targets for subjugation until conversion. They transcended personal crimes, driven by an urge to dominate and obliterate Hindu identity. Since this predatory pattern flowed from doctrinal animosity towards Hinduism and its followers, the case was documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Therefore, it is being added to the hate crime database of the tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when a victim's ordeal begins, rather than when the media reports the incident. In this case, media reports did not specify the exact start but noted it began in 2025, pinpointing 22 March 2025, when Sahil invited her to his home, as the earliest date mentioned. The other key date was the First Information Report filing on 4 February 2026. Hence, 22 March 2025 was selected as the indicative incident date. This was recorded for documentation purposes only. Although Sahil served as the main perpetrator, his friend Junaid equally participated in the crime, particularly through blackmail using obscene videos. Henceforth, the perpetrator count was recorded as two (2), referring to both Sahil and Junaid. This was noted for documentation purposes only.