Hindu woman deceived, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man, who pretended to be Hindu

Case ID : d327734 | Location : Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 9 February, 2022

Case ID : d327734

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

9 February, 2022

Hindu woman deceived, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man, who pretended to be Hindu

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

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Karond area of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, a 24-year-old Hindu woman was deceived, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Faizan, who pretended to be Hindu. According to reports, the victim came into contact with the accused, Faizan, son of Ramzan, through Facebook in 2022, where he introduced himself as a Hindu man named Rakesh Kushwaha (some reports refer him to be Rajesh). He gradually lured her into a relationship, through this false identity. However, when the victim came to know about the accused's real identity, that his name was Faizan and he was a Muslim, she broke off the relationship and attempted to distance herself from him. Enraged by this, the accused Faizan began pressuring her to convert to Islam and subjected her to repeated sexual assault. During this period, he was arrested and imprisoned in connection with a separate murder case, though he still threatened her with the help of his brother Yunus. After his release from jail in December 2025, he resumed contact with the victim and escalated the harassment. The woman stated that over the course of next two months, he raped her multiple times and threatened to kill her and her family members, including her son, sister, brother, and mother, if she resisted or told anyone about the abuse. She stated that she was raped more than 15 times during this period. On 10 February 2026, Faizan attempted to forcibly abduct the victim near Jail Road in Bhopal. However, his plan was thwarted by the nearby shopkeepers, who intervened and prevented him from taking her away. Following this incident, she recorded a video on social media seeking assistance and subsequently approached the police station with the support of members of Bajrang Dal. Subsequently, an FIR was registered at the Chhola police station against Faizan and his brother Yunus for rape, criminal intimidation, and related offences. The police initiated an investigation and increased security arrangements for the victim and her family in view of the seriousness of the threats.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, 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 in this case 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 sub-category selected here is - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a 24-year-old Hindu woman was deceived, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Faizan, who pretended to be Hindu. Firstly, the perpetrator deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Secondly, the Muslim accused threatened her and raped her multiple times, when she began to distance herself from him. The sexual violation served as an instrument of religious humiliation, designed to shatter personal autonomy and demonstrate absolute dominance. This physical act cannot be separated from its religious context; it represented the culmination of a process intended to break the victim's connection to her culture, as the accused later pressured her for conversion. Such crimes communicate a terrifying message to the entire Hindu community: that their women represent legitimate targets for systematic predation specifically because of their religious identity. Thirdly, the victim was subjected to coercion, harassment and threats for religious conversion by the accused. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another is 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 the harassment and sexual violence were not random acts of crime, but rather they were tools to convert the victim to Islam. They functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating a Hindu woman because of her faith. The target was not the victim as an individual, but her Hindu identity. The clear intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. It was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. This sustained abuse reflected deep-seated religious hostility and demonstrated how systematic harassment becomes a tool for targeting Hindu women, making the crime inherently religious in nature. 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. Such acts were not merely personal crimes; they were rooted in a desire to dominate and erase the religious identity of the victim. 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 the date of the incident based on when the crime occurred. The media reports published this case on 12 February 2026. However, the media reports do not specify the exact date of the beginning of the victim’s ordeal. The victim came in contact with the accused in 2022, and on 10 February 2026, the accused attempted to abduct the victim. Considering these two pieces of information, we are using an indicative date of 10 February 2022 as the date of the incident. This date is used for documentation purposes only and represents the estimated beginning of her ordeal.