Hindu woman tortured for religious conversion by Christian in-laws; Hindu deities denigrated

Case ID : e274a5b | Location : Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 9 December, 2020

Case ID : e274a5b

Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India

9 December, 2020

Hindu woman tortured for religious conversion by Christian in-laws; Hindu deities denigrated

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Forced conversion after marriage

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman named Akaknsha Arora was physically and mentally tortured for religious conversion by her Christian in-laws and her husband. According to the reports, the victim is a former Indian Army Captain, who was first compelled by her husband Tanay Mebin to convert to Christianity, just 10 days before marriage on 20 December 2017. She was taken to the Hindu Methodist Church in Badi Omti, Jabalpur, where the conversion ceremony took place against her will. After the marriage, her father-in-law, Akhilesh Mebin (director of Joy Senior Secondary School), his wife Neenu, and son Tanay, subjected her to sustained physical and mental torture and abuse, demanding that she give up her Hindu faith and fully embrace Christianity. Their harassment increased to such an extent that she was forced to resign from the Indian army. However, her in-laws kept on pressuring her to convert, and when she refused, she was abused and thrown out of the house on December 25. 2020. The victim has since been living with her mother. In 2021, the victim filed a complaint against her in-laws and her husband at the women's police station. In 2023, her husband attempted to intimidate her into withdrawing the complaint and threatened to kill her when she refused. The accused further told her that his family has political influence and nothing would come of the complaint. On 28 June 2025, based on another complaint by the victim, an FIR was registered by the police. As of the date of writing this report, Akhilesh Mebin, Neenu Mebin, and Tanay Mebin were arrested by the police and were produced in court. It was also revealed that Akhilesh Mebin had previously made derogatory statements against Hindus, stating “Hindus are illegitimate children of Ram,” which had triggered widespread anger from the Hindu organisation, for which he was also arrested as well.

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 first sub-category selected 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 second sub-category relevant here is:- Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. 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. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. 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 situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. 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. The second primary category selected here is: - Hate speech against Hindus. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was physically and mentally tortured for religious conversion by her husband and in-laws. The fact that she was first pressurised just 10 days before her marriage shows the calculated and malicious intent of the accused. Raising the issue of religious conversion so close to the wedding wasn’t accidental; it was a deliberate and manipulative tactic. The days leading up to marriage are often emotionally and physically overwhelming for any person, and by bringing it up at that point, the accused created an artificial time limit to push her into submission. Instead of giving her the time and space to think whether she wants to convert or not, they weaponised the urgency of the wedding to trap her into submission. Even after marriage, when she didn’t embrace Christianity, the family escalated their coercive methods into outright physical and mental abuse. These acts were not motivated by interpersonal disputes but were direct reprisals for her refusal to change her religious identity and embrace Christianity. This makes the threats and assaults acts of targeted religious hostility. She was made to resign from her job, which was an obvious attempt to make her financially and emotionally dependent on the accused and his family, making her more susceptible to conversion. The Christian faith, by its very theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to deception or violence. These tactics are designed to mentally break up an individual so as to make his conversion easier. This form of targeted proselytisation stems from deep-seated hostility towards the Hindu faith, since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith must be converted through any means necessary, including deception, brainwashing, emotional manipulation or even violence. Since such targeting is not incidental but rooted in hostility towards the Hindu faith and a supremacist theological framework, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. It is also important to note that one of the key accused, Akhilesh Mebin, had earlier made openly abusive remarks against Hindus, calling them “illegitimate children of Ram.” Lord Ram is one of the most revered deities in Hindu dharma, and such statements are not casual insults but deliberate provocations intended to denigrate and dehumanise the Hindu community. This statement exposed his religious animosity towards the Hindu faith. It further confirms that his actions towards the victim were rooted in religious hatred rather than personal conflict. Disclaimer: Media reports state that the victim was first converted to Christianity 10 days before her marriage on December 20, 2017. Thus, to document this case, we have used the date December 10, 2025, to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on May 23, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.