Hindu girl given death threats, sexually exploited and pressured for religious conversion by Muslim man, posing as Hindu
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
16 April, 2025
Case Summary
In Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu girl was deceived into a relationship, sexually exploited, and coerced into religious conversion by a Muslim man named Nafees, who pretended to be Hindu to trap the Hindu victim. The accused, a resident of Gulhariya Ghat, Tulsipur, Uttar Pradesh, created a fake Hindu identity using the name Kanu Patel to befriend the Hindu girl on social media about 2 months ago. Believing him to be Hindu, the girl accepted his friend request, and the two began speaking regularly. Within days, Nafees expressed love for the girl and began manipulating her with promises of marriage, all while continuing to hide his true identity. However, the girl eventually discovered his true identity, that his real name is Nafees and he is a Muslim. When she confronted him, he threatened to kill her and her family and pressured her to meet him at Vishnu Sagar. There, he again insisted on marriage, but only on the condition that she convert to Islam. He also molested her and engaged in obscene behaviour. The victim informed the police that Nafees repeatedly threatened to kill her and her family when she refused to convert. She immediately informed her father, and with the help of Bajrang Dal members, Nafees was apprehended and handed over to the police. He was booked under sections 74, 75, 319(2), and 351(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with sections 3 and 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021. During the investigation of his mobile phone, Bajrang Dal members found multiple obscene photos and videos. As of the date of this report, the police were investigating whether Nafees was harassing only this girl in the name of love jihad or whether he had similarly deceived other girls.
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 here is: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - Name changed and Pattern of targeting Hindu women. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The second sub-category selected here 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 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. The third sub-category selected here 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was deceived into a relationship and subsequently pressured and threatened for religious conversion by a Muslim man who posed as a Hindu. The accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Furthermore, when his real identity was revealed, he threatened to kill her and her entire family and started pressuring her for religious conversion. He also sexually exploited her; combined with the death threats, this was part of a deliberate effort to mentally harass and subjugate her into religious conversion. Additionally, the discovery of various photos and videos of other girls on the accused’s phone suggests this is not an isolated incident but may be part of a larger pattern, where Hindu women may be systematically targeted, deceived, and coerced through similar tactics. This stems 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. In such cases, religious conversion is not sought through mutual understanding or consent, but rather through fear, deception, and violence, tools that are indicative of doctrinal hostility toward the Hindu faith. 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 victim came into contact with the accused about 2 months ago, through Instagram, without mentioning an exact date or month. To document this case, we have used an indicative date—April 17, 2025—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on June 17, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
