Hindu woman pressured to convert to Islam, subjected to rape and death threats by Muslim men in Lucknow

Case ID : d3278e2 | Location : Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 29 January, 2026

Case ID : d3278e2

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

29 January, 2026

Hindu woman pressured to convert to Islam, subjected to rape and death threats by Muslim men in Lucknow

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman from the Dalit community was pressured to convert to Islam by three Muslim men, Shahban Ahmad, Sultan Ahmad, and Ittifaq Ahmad. The perpetrators even threatened to rape the victim and kill her husband if she refused to convert. According to the victim, on 31 January 2026, she visited the Civil Court in Lucknow regarding a notice. There, the Muslim perpetrators began stalking her, following her, and behaving indecently towards her. They also pressured her to convert to Islam. The victim stated that they had been stalking her for several months and constantly pressuring her to convert. When the victim opposed the pressure for conversion, the Muslim perpetrators threatened to kill her husband and rape her. Deeply troubled by this, the victim reported this matter to the Wazirganj police station in Lucknow. There, the police officer Rajesh Tripathi promised to serve her justice and take action against the perpetrators. Following this, when the victim visited the police station again on 11th February 2026 at 2 pm, the police officer Rajesh Tripathi drove her away and hurled casteist remarks at her.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory 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. In this case, a Hindu woman from the Dalit community was pressured to convert to Islam by three Muslim men, Shahban Ahmad, Sultan Ahmad, and Ittifaq Ahmad. She was then threatened with rape and the murder of her husband if she refused to convert. The Muslim perpetrators constantly harassed her for months for her conversion. All this showcased religious animosity, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The act of forcing her to convert to Islam itself showcased religious animosity, as it directly violated her religious autonomy by seeking to erase her Hindu identity and replace it with another faith through coercion. Forced conversions represent a profound attack on an individual's fundamental right to practise their faith freely, without interference or compulsion. This aggression reflects the perpetrators' deep-seated hatred for the victim's Hindu identity, evident in their targeted pressure to abandon her beliefs, rituals, and cultural ties tied to Hinduism, and their explicit intent to impose Islam as a superior or mandatory alternative. Such actions inherently qualify as a religiously motivated hate crime, since they originate from prejudice and hostility against one specific religion, here, Hinduism, coupled with a zealous drive to supplant it entirely, undermining the victim's personal and communal religious sovereignty. Furthermore, when the victim refused to convert to Islam, she was threatened with rape and the murder of her husband, escalating the confrontation into life-threatening territory. This demonstrated that the perpetrators were ready to cross any limits, resorting to the most extreme forms of violence and terror, sexual assault on her body and lethal harm to her family, to break her resistance and enforce conversion. Such threats intensified the religiously motivated nature of the crime, underscoring their profound intolerance for her refusal and their ruthless determination to punish her unwavering adherence to Hinduism, viewing her faith as an unacceptable defiance. It rendered the religious hostility even more severe and clearer, as the promised violence was not random but explicitly conditioned on her rejection of conversion, transforming a religious dispute into a calculated campaign of intimidation rooted in bigotry. The victim stated that she was constantly harassed for months together for conversion, creating a relentless campaign of psychological and emotional pressure. This prolonged pattern showcased religious animosity through sustained, repetitive efforts to undermine her faith over an extended period, wearing down her resolve through persistent stalking, indecent behaviour, and demands at key moments like her court visit. It reflected a continuous religious zeal to strip the Hindu victim of her faith identity. Such repetition amplifies the hate crime's gravity, as it indicates obsessive, unwavering prejudice based on her religious affiliation rather than a fleeting or isolated incident, revealing a deep, enduring commitment to eradicating her Hinduism through coercion. Given that this case met several parameters of a hate crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of incidents based on when a crime occurs or when the victim's ordeal begins, rather than when it is reported by the media. Media reports have not stated the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. They only state one of the dates, that is, 31 January 2026, when the victim went to the Civil Court and was targeted by the accused. Henceforth, that date is selected as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.