Married Hindu woman raped, threatened, and forced to convert to Islam by Muslim lawyer
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
23 June, 2025
Case Summary
In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a married Hindu woman was raped and pressurised to convert to Islam by her Muslim lawyer named Haider. He told her that if she converted, both she and her children would have a better life. Following this, he also threatened to kill her children if she refused to convert. According to media reports, the woman’s husband had been in jail for the past seven years, leaving her to live alone with her children. She had gone to the Indore court for her husband’s case, where she met the Muslim accused named Haider. He told her that he was a lawyer and promised to help her. He asked her for certain legal documents related to her husband's case, which she stated were at her home. He then visited her home on the pretext of obtaining the documents. The woman was making tea for him, during which Haider forced himself upon her and raped her. He then pressured her to convert to Islam, assuring her of a better life if she complied. Furthermore, he threatened to kill her children if she refused to convert, and also warned her that she would face social stigma if she told anyone about the incident. Despite her fears, the woman narrated her ordeal to her relatives. With their support, she went to the Banganga police station and filed a police complaint. The police responded swiftly and registered a case against the accused. As of the date of writing this report, the accused was arrested by the police, and the police began a thorough investigation into the case. The victim was also sent for a medical examination.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, 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. The other subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- 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. In this case, a Hindu woman was raped and pressurised for religious conversion by the Muslim perpetrator. He also threatened her with social stigma and even threatened to kill her children if she refused to comply with his demands. This incident is a stark demonstration of a religiously motivated crime against a Hindu woman. The sexual violence, followed by intense religious intimidation, makes it clear that her religious identity was the primary reason that she was targeted by the Muslim perpetrator. The Muslim perpetrator did not just commit an act of rape; he went further by forcing her to convert to his faith, Islam, which showcases that his actions were specifically motivated by his animosity towards her Hindu identity. By demanding that the victim convert to Islam, he revealed a clear religious motivation behind his actions. Such acts are not isolated incidents; rather, they are examples of targeted sexual violence against Hindu women by Muslim men, rooted in religious animosity towards the Hindu community. In many such cases, Muslim perpetrators use sexual violence as a tool to further the underlying agenda of forced religious conversions, making this a clear example of a crime driven by religious motivations. Additionally, the Muslim perpetrator’s threats to kill the Hindu victim’s children, if she refused to convert and expose her to social stigma if she spoke out. All these actions were manipulative tactics designed to break her spirit and force her into submission. Such actions are not random acts of cruelty, but rather a deliberate attempt to erase the victim's religious identity. Such instances highlight the vulnerability of Hindu women, who often fall victim to threats and coercion from Muslim perpetrators who seek to strip them of their faith. These 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. Thus, rape and threats are used as tools for religious conversion. 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.
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 
