Hindu woman lured into relationship, pressured to convert to Islam and wear burqa by Muslim man in Hubballi, Karnataka

Case ID : d420ee8 | Location : Hubli, Karnataka, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 4 March, 2026

Case ID : d420ee8

Hubli, Karnataka, India

4 March, 2026

Hindu woman lured into relationship, pressured to convert to Islam and wear burqa by Muslim man in Hubballi, Karnataka

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to wear Hijab

Case Summary

In Hubballi, Karnataka, a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship with the promise of marriage by a Muslim man. The victim was then pressured to convert to Islam before marriage and was also pressured to wear a burqa by the accused. This came to light when several Hindu women shared their experiences at a press conference against "Love Jihad", a term used to describe patterns of predatory religious profiling and targeting of Hindu women by Muslim men by luring them into relationships or marriage with the ulterior motive of conversion or sexual exploitation. This conference was held in Hubballi on March 5, 2026. The programme was organised under the leadership of Pramod Muthalik, founder of the Sri Ram Sene, a Hindu organisation, where participants stated that young Hindu women were targeted and emotionally manipulated in the name of love by Muslim men. The issue gained renewed attention following the release of a movie named "Kerala Story 2", which showcased several such predatory targeting of Hindu women by Muslim men for conversion and sexual exploitation, all motivated by religious animosity. Hindu activists at the Hubballi event argued that similar incidents occurred across the country, including in Karnataka. At the press conference, several women who described themselves as victims narrated their personal experiences where they were lured and targeted by Muslim men. One of the Hindu women said she was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man. At first, the relationship appeared genuine, but later turned into a distressing experience. She stated that the Muslim man initially lured her into the relationship with sweet words and told her that there would be no pressure to convert to his religion or wear a burqa after marriage. According to her, the promises later proved false as the Muslim man began forcing her to adopt Islam and wear a burqa before marriage. She managed to escape from the relationship after realising the situation. Notably, several other Hindu women present at the event shared similar accounts, stating that they had faced emotional pressure and manipulation.

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. The subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. 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 subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. The tertiary category selected is- Forced to wear hijab. 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 the 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 pressurizing 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 Hindu woman endured manipulation when a Muslim man lured her into a relationship under the false pretence of genuine love and future marriage. He then subjected her to relentless pressure to abandon her Hindu faith, convert to Islam, and wear a burqa even before any wedding took place. These actions formed a direct assault on her identity as a Hindu woman, exploiting her trust to enforce religious dominance. What began as whispered promises of acceptance revealed itself as a predatory scheme to dismantle her beliefs, her autonomy, and her very sense of self, all fuelled by prejudice against her faith. The victim fell into this trap not because the Muslim man hid his identity, but because he cunningly concealed his true intentions from the start. He drew her in with sweet words and assurances that her Hindu religion would not be a limitation in their romance, promising she would never face demands to convert to Islam or adopt Islamic attire like the burqa after marriage. These vows crumbled into lies as he began coercing her to embrace Islam and veil herself immediately, before any commitment materialised. This betrayal exposed his manipulative core: he never saw her as a cherished partner worthy of respect. Instead, he profiled her Hindu background from day one, viewing her as a trophy for religious conquest rather than a person to love. Such calculated deception, rooted in contempt for Hindu women, cements this as a textbook religiously motivated hate crime. Pressuring the Hindu woman to convert constituted a grave hate crime in itself, ruthlessly shattering her personal freedoms and inviolable right to religious autonomy. This was no subtle influence but outright coercion, where the perpetrator weaponised emotional manipulation and pressure to dismantle the very foundation of her spiritual life. It laid bare his profound animosity towards her Hindu identity, dismissing her sacred traditions, rooted in centuries of devotion to Hindu deities, vibrant festivals like Diwali, and personal rituals of puja, as worthless and inferior, fit only to be erased and replaced by Islamic doctrine. Such a forced attempt to convert the woman dehumanised her, reducing her to a conquest trophy and signalling that her religious beliefs held no value in his eyes. The added insistence on wearing a burqa escalated the assault by forcing an Islamic lifestyle that directly clashed with her Hindu heritage. Unlike Hindu traditions that embrace open attire such as sarees or salwar kameez, the burqa hides her appearance and suppresses personal expression, serving as a tool to erase visible markers of her faith and culture. This coercion qualifies as a hate crime, as it targets her religious identity through humiliation and control, replacing her autonomy with dominance driven by anti-Hindu bias. Several other Hindu women at the event recounted strikingly similar ordeals, where they too were entrapped through deceptive relationships promising love and marriage, only to face mounting pressure to convert to Islam and endure sexual exploitation. These accounts reveal that the Hubballi case is far from an isolated incident; instead, they expose a disturbing pattern of systematically targeting Hindu women with the explicit intent to forcibly convert them and exploit them sexually. This repeated tactic, driven by deep anti-Hindu animosity, underscores a coordinated predatory strategy rather than random acts, preying on vulnerability to erode Hindu identities and communities one woman at a time. Since this case ticks every box for a hate crime, from religious targeting and forced conversion to cultural erasure and manipulative entrapment, it has been formally added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the dates of incidents based on when the crime occurs or when the victim's ordeal begins, rather than when it is reported by the media. In this case, media reports have not stated the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. The press conference where several Hindu women shared their experiences was organised on 5 March 2026. Henceforth, 5 March 2026 is selected as the indicative incident date. This is recorded for documentation purposes only.