Hindu woman harassed, brutally assaulted and abandoned for refusing to convert by her Christian husband

Case ID : d327741 | Location : Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 11 February, 2016

Case ID : d327741

Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

11 February, 2016

Hindu woman harassed, brutally assaulted and abandoned for refusing to convert by her Christian husband

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion after marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Leaves Hindu partner upon refusal to convert

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for refusal to convert

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman named Punita was harassed and physically assaulted for refusing to convert to Christianity by her Christian husband. The victim, Punita, daughter of Rajendra Yadav and a resident of Semri Maheshpur in the Sukrauli police station area, had been residing with her two minor daughters at her parental home, in the Hata tehsil area of Kushinagar, for the past three years after being expelled from her matrimonial residence. She had married Satya Prakash Yadav, a resident of Hemdapur in Gorakhpur district, in 2016, and the marriage initially proceeded normally, resulting in the birth of two daughters, aged seven and five in 2026. Over time, however, members of her matrimonial family began to turn towards Christianity under the influence of her sister-in-law's husband, Dilip Kumar, who claimed to be a pastor and operated a church in the Chhitaunipatti area of Kushinagar. Subsequently, her husband and other in-laws converted to Christianity and began attending the same church. They also began pressuring the victim to abandon her Hindu faith and convert to Christianity. When she refused to convert, she was subjected to physical assault and mental harassment. During one such incident, she was brutally assaulted, resulting in serious injuries and was thrown away in a garden near her maternal home. Her father reached the location and rushed her to the Sukrauli Community Health Centre, following which she was admitted to a private hospital for further treatment. After recovering, she approached the Hata police station to lodge a complaint. As the incident fell within the jurisdiction of the Pipraich police station in Gorakhpur district, the matter was transferred there, and a case was registered under relevant legal provisions. The family court later directed her husband to pay ₹10,000 per month as maintenance for her and the children, yet no instalments were paid. Despite a court-issued arrest warrant, the accused remained at large. The station house officer stated that formal instructions from the court had not yet been received and assured that action would be initiated upon receipt. Meanwhile, following protests and public outrage in the locality, the church at Chhitaunipatti was found closed, and Dilip Kumar was reported missing. At the time of reporting, Punita and her two daughters continued to seek justice and enforcement of the court’s directions.

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 is - Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to any Abrahamic faith, like Islam, begins after marriage. 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. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert her religion after marriage. 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 situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The other 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 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 sub-category selected is - Leaves Hindu partner upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. However, when the Hindu woman refuses to convert, the non-Hindu man ends the relationship or divorces the woman, as the case might be. 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to change her religious identity and upon her refusal, ends the relationship. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force, or threat after she refuses to convert to Islam, are not considered a part of the hate tracker. The second primary category selected here is - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category 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. The other sub-category selected is - Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman named Punita was harassed and physically assaulted for refusing to convert to Christianity by her Christian husband. Firstly, there was no indication that the marriage began under deception, as both parties were Hindus at the time of marriage. However, after her husband and members of his family converted to Christianity, pressure was placed upon Punita to convert as well. The shift in the matrimonial environment from shared religious identity to sustained insistence on conversion altered the nature of the relationship. Her refusal to abandon her Hindu faith became a point of conflict, indicating that continuation within the marital household was increasingly conditioned upon religious conformity. Secondly, 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. Thirdly, the victim was subjected to physical violence by the accused and his family members after the victim refused to convert. The violence occurred directly as a consequence of her refusal to abandon Hinduism, indicating that the violence functioned as punishment for resisting conversion. It was a deliberate attempt to punish and intimidate the victim for adhering to his religion and not converting. Committing such brutal violence just for refusing conversion showcases the lengths the accused was willing to go to enforce conversions, making it a religiously motivated offence. This act goes beyond mere criminal behaviour; it is a calculated and malicious attack on her religious identity. Often in such cases, physical violence serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Fourth, the victim was brutally assaulted and was thrown away in a garden near her maternal home, effectively the accused and his family abandoned her because she refused to convert. The moment she stood firm in her faith and resisted; the accused abandoned her. This sequence reinforces the religious nature of the relationship, where conversion was a prerequisite for continuity. Her Hindu identity became the very reason for rejection; an act rooted in religious hatred. 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. The act of violence against the victim who resisted conversion illustrated an extreme manifestation of intolerance towards Hindu 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: 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, though it is mentioned that she got married in 2016. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date, 12 february 2016, as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 12 Feb 2026, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker acknowledges that Satya Prakash Yadav and members of his family were reported to have collectively pressured the victim to convert to Christianity. However, as only Satya Prakash Yadav was explicitly named in media reports in connection with the acts of coercion and violence, the number of perpetrators has been recorded as one for documentation purposes.