Hindu woman lured into relationship, forcibly converted to Islam, and financially exploited by Muslim man

Case ID : d32784f | Location : United States | Date of Incident : Mon, 17 February, 2020

Case ID : d32784f

United States

17 February, 2020

Hindu woman lured into relationship, forcibly converted to Islam, and financially exploited by Muslim man

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Case Summary

A Hindu woman from Himmatnagar, Gujarat, who lived in the United States, was lured into a relationship, forcibly converted to Islam, and suffered extortion of substantial sums of money, gold, and property at the hands of a Muslim man, Ejaz Salim Patel. The sequence of events began when the victim, then 40, resided in the United States with her young daughter after a divorce in 2020. She purchased clothes online from a showroom on Ghoddod Road in Surat when the accused approached her. The accused, Ejaz Salim Patel, a resident of Rampura in Surat, worked there as a salesman. He secured her mobile number under the pretext of seeking customer feedback. Over subsequent months, he maintained frequent calls and messages, cultivated a close relationship with her, and persuaded her to meet him in person. They both met in Hyderabad in January 2024. In May 2024, he took her to Saudi Arabia, where she was forcibly converted to Islam and was given a new name, Iqra. Following the conversion, the accused married the victim through an online marriage. After about six months, the accused pressured her to take him to the United States, which she could not facilitate. Thereafter, he threatened and intimidated her, blackmailing her by threatening to release her private photographs and personal information. He took away her jewellery, cash, and control over her flat. Over time, she transferred nearly 60 lakh rupees to him through bank transactions and handed over 18 tolas of gold jewellery, which were meant for her brother but retained by the accused. He also took possession of the keys to her residential flat in Hyderabad during this period. When she demanded the return of her money, jewellery, and property, he responded with abusive language and further threats. The victim sent a detailed complaint from the United States to her brother, explaining how she had been ensnared, converted, and financially exploited. Acting on this communication, Gujarat Police registered a case at Lalgate Police Station and detained Ejaz Salim Patel. Police interrogation revealed that the accused was already married and had a child. Police confirmed that a detailed investigation into the financial transactions, digital evidence, and circumstances surrounding the forced conversion continued.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The 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 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 pressurising 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. This case stands as a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, as a Muslim man lured a Hindu woman into a relationship. In this case, even though the Muslim man did not hide his religious identity, the nature of their relationship suggested that he made her believe her religious identity posed no barrier to their romantic involvement. He manipulated her trust by cultivating this false assurance, drawing her into the relationship. This deception revealed deep-seated religious animosity, for the accused later reversed course entirely, forcibly converting her to Islam against her will. Furthermore, luring the victim into a relationship with the premeditated intent of future forced conversion demonstrated that he targeted her specifically for her Hindu religious identity. The victim faced no other motive, such as genuine affection or shared interests; he chose her precisely because she was Hindu, exploiting her vulnerability as a divorced mother living abroad. This religiously motivated selection process, where her faith became the basis for entrapment, marked the case unequivocally as a hate crime driven by animosity towards Hinduism. The act of taking her to Saudi Arabia, forcibly converting her to Islam, and marrying her online revealed a deliberate intent to erase her Hindu religious identity completely. Forced conversions violate an individual's religious autonomy and fundamental human rights, stripping them of the freedom to practise their faith. The accused never truly loved her but exploited her trust from the outset solely for conversion purposes, as evidenced by his swift reversal once he held power over her. Forcing someone to abandon their lifelong faith constitutes a grave offence rooted in profound religious animosity; here, the coercion extended beyond mere belief change, aiming to obliterate the victim's Hindu identity through ritual domination, rendering it a clear religiously motivated crime. The victim was also forcibly given a Muslim name, Iqra, immediately post-conversion, severing her final personal ties to her Hindu roots and heritage. This forced renaming, followed by an online marriage to the accused, enabled him to perpetrate the initial deception, enforce the conversion, and exert long-term control over her life and decisions. Such systematic steps, renaming, religious alteration, and marital binding, formed a calculated erasure of her Hindu identity, confirming the religiously motivated nature of the crime at every stage. Following this, the accused financially defrauded and exploited the victim over an extended period. He pressured her to bring him to the United States, and when she could not, he blackmailed her with obscene videos and photos, seizing her jewellery, cash, flat keys, and nearly 60 lakh rupees. He viewed the Hindu woman solely as a target for religious conversion and financial gain, making this incident a clear case of religiously motivated crime. Since this case meets the parameters of a hate crime, the Hinduphobia Tracker added it to its hate crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurred, or the victim's ordeal began, rather than media reporting dates. In this case, media reports did not specify the exact date of the ordeal's start. They stated only that after her 2020 divorce, the accused from Surat, Gujarat, approached and persuaded her. The media reported this incident on 18 February 2026. Based on this information, 18 February 2020 serves as the indicative incident date. This is recorded for documentation purposes only. In this case, the victim from Himmatnagar, Gujarat, was first lured while she was in the United States. Therefore, the location is recorded as the United States.