Several Hindu women lured, raped, forced to convert and adopt Islamic practices by Muslim conversion gang in Bhopal

Case ID : d327933 | Location : Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 7 June, 2023

Case ID : d327933

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

7 June, 2023

Several Hindu women lured, raped, forced to convert and adopt Islamic practices by Muslim conversion gang in Bhopal

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Blackmailed to convert

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In the Bagsewania area of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, several Hindu women were lured, sexually exploited and pressured to convert to Islam by a Muslim conversion gang. The victims were drugged, raped, forced to wear a burqa, read the Quran, and perform namaz by the Muslim perpetrators. The incident came to light after multiple women lodged complaints against the Muslim group operating across the city and extending to other states. Based on the statements of two of the victims, the police registered cases under sections of rape and the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act. The first victim, a 30-year-old Hindu woman, a beautician by profession, from Chhattisgarh, stated that on 8 June 2024, on the birthday of her friend Akash, she became friends with a girl named Sanjana (who herself had undergone religious conversion and adopted the name Jannat), who introduced her to a Muslim woman named Amreen Khan alias Mahira. By January 2025, she had shifted to the Bagsewania area and began residing in proximity to Amreen. Over time, she discovered that another woman in the group had converted to Islam and married Amreen’s brother. In August 2025, Amreen's friend, Chandan Yadav (who had also undergone religious conversion), took the Hindu victim to a house on the pretext of meeting his sister. He then drugged her, raped her and threatened defamation to ensure her silence. In November 2025, she was taken to Gandhi Nagar, where Amreen’s brother Bilal gave her a drugged beverage and raped her. In December 2025, she was taken to Ahmedabad, where a Muslim man identified as Yasir raped her. Throughout this period, she was pressured to convert to Islam, wear a burqa, offer namaz and read the Quran. She was also taken to pubs and gatherings and compelled to socialise with men against her will, effectively forcing her into prostitution. In January 2026, she managed to escape Bhopal and returned to her maternal uncle’s home in Chhattisgarh. Subsequently, she decided to pursue legal action after learning that another Hindu woman had undergone a similar experience at the hands of Amreen. The second complainant, a 35-year-old Hindu widow and mother of two children, stated that she met Amreen in 2023 at a mall while working as a waitress in catering services. She was offered employment as a babysitter with a monthly salary of ₹10,000 and was later accommodated at Amreen’s residence near Ashoka Garden. In December 2024, she was taken to a house in Narayan Nagar, given tea laced with intoxicants and raped by Chandan Yadav. She stated that Amreen, Chanu and Afreen subsequently pressured her to convert to Islam, offer namaz and wear a burqa. She was also taken to Ahmedabad, where she was sexually assaulted again. She described being confined, threatened and coerced into sexual exploitation involving multiple Muslim men connected to the group. When she resisted and suspected that she was being pushed into prostitution, she left the arrangement. Investigators identified a pattern in which financially vulnerable or socially isolated Hindu women were befriended, offered employment or emotional support, drugged, sexually assaulted and then threatened with defamation to ensure compliance. The victims were subjected to sustained pressure to convert to Islam and conform to its religious practices. Police stated that the inquiry was ongoing, that additional victims might emerge, and that the network’s operations, including possible inter-state links to Ahmedabad and other cities, were being examined from all angles. Based on the statements of two victims, the police registered offences under rape provisions and the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act and arrested three accused persons: Amreen Khan alias Mahira, Afreen and Chandan Yadav. Amreen and Chandan were taken on police remand for further interrogation. According to the investigation, Amreen functioned as the central link connecting the accused in both cases, and the police had initiated efforts to identify additional victims and trace other absconding accused, including Bilal, Yasir and Chanu. A police team was formed to travel to Ahmedabad to pursue leads regarding offences committed there. Subsequently, further police investigations confirmed that the network was not limited to Bhopal and had links extending to Ahmedabad. According to officials, the accused used spas and beauty parlours to approach Hindu women. They offered jobs to those in need, especially from financially weaker or lower-middle-class families, and slowly gained their trust before trapping them. Investigators also found that Muslim women were actively involved in the network. They would befriend Hindu women, then introduce them to Muslim men. Afterwards, the victims were forced into situations involving sexual assault, blackmail, and pressure to convert to Islam. Officials said this pattern was repeated in multiple cases that had surfaced. Police believed that many more Hindu women may have been targeted, but several cases had not been reported, possibly due to fear or lack of awareness about legal action. The investigation was ongoing, and authorities were working to identify all those involved and understand the full scale of the network.

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 - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - 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 - 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. The second primary category selected here is - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected here 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - Rape and sexual assault/harassment. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case is a textbook example of a religiously motivated hate crime targeting Hindu women for sexual abuse and religious conversion by the Muslim conversion gang. The pattern of targeting was clear: Hindu women, who were financially vulnerable or socially isolated, were religiously profiled and targeted. They were lured, drugged and then subjected to rape, blackmail, and repeated sexual exploitation. They were then converted to Islam, forced to wear a burqa, read quran and perform namaz. The motive was not merely personal gratification or financial gain; it was religious animosity towards Hinduism and the victims' Hindu identity. Firstly, the use of drugs, blackmail, and sexual violence was not just a method of control but a calculated strategy to strip the victims of their willpower and ability to resist exploitation and religious conversion. Often in such cases, sexual 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 is systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Such acts of religiously motivated sexual violence make this an instance of a hate-driven offence. Secondly, such cases are never just about individual exploitation or religious conversion; they are part of a larger ideological campaign of subjugation. Hindu women and girls are not viewed as mere individuals, but as symbolic representatives of their community, a community that must be degraded, violated, and humiliated through its women. This was not opportunistic criminality; it is communal hatred expressed through gendered violence. The Hindu women were targeted precisely because they were considered religiously inferior due to their Hindu identity. If the victims had not been Hindu, they would not have been selectively lured and abused in this specific manner. That selectiveness is what transforms the crime from exploitation into communal hatred, manifesting through gendered violence. Thirdly, the coercive conduct extended beyond sexual exploitation. The victims were pressured to abandon their Hindu faith, convert to Islam and adopt Islamic practices. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another was 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 victims' Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act is not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victims' Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Fourth, the victims were also made to wear a burqa, read quran and perform namaz. The imposition of the burqa on the Hindu victims added another layer to this erasure of their Hindu identity. By forcing them to wear a burqa, the Muslim perpetrators attempted to strip them of their Hindu faith and impose foreign religious practices upon them. It was not merely about clothing; it symbolised the effort to overwrite their Hindu identity and forcibly assimilate them into practices of the Islamic faith. Similarly, making them perform namaz and read quran was another instance of forcibly exposing them to Islamic practices. This again glaringly demonstrates the religiously motivated nature of the crime. These exploitations were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating the Hindu women because of their faith. The target was not the victims as individuals, but their Hindu identity. The specific focus on her Hindu identity in the commission of these acts highlights the religious hatred underlying the crime, making it a religiously motivated offence. 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 dates of incidents based on when the victims' ordeal begins rather than when it is reported by the media. However, in this case, media reports did not state when the victims' ordeal began, though it is mentioned that the first victim met the perpetrators on 8 June 2024, while another victim had met the perpetrators in 2023. Based on this, we selected the earliest victim's date and, henceforth, used these two pieces of information with an indicative date of the incident of 8 June 2023. The Hinduphobia Tracker acknowledges that multiple women were targeted and converted by the Muslim conversion gang. However, as of the time of documentation, only two victims have formally come forward and filed complaints with the police. Accordingly, for documentation purposes, the victim count in this case has been recorded as 2. The Hinduphobia Tracker has recorded the perpetrator count in this case as 7, based on the names that have emerged in victim statements and police reporting at the time of documentation. These individuals are: Amreen Khan alias Mahira, Afreen, Chandan Yadav, Bilal (Amreen’s brother), Yasir, Chanu, and Sanjana (also referred to as Jannat). The figure reflects documented involvement as per available reports at the time of entry and may be revised if further official findings emerge.