Hindu woman deceived and pressured to convert by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case ID : e274b9f | Location : Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 10 July, 2025

Case ID : e274b9f

Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India

10 July, 2025

Hindu woman deceived and pressured to convert by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman belonging to the SC-ST community was deceived, sexually exploited, and physically abused by a Muslim man named Shaan Khan, who posed as a Hindu to lure her into a relationship with the intent of religious conversion. According to reports, the Hindu woman, who works in the event management sector, met the accused through social media. He introduced himself as Shaan Sharma, claiming to be a Hindu. Over time, their online interaction developed into a romantic relationship, and the two began living together. During this live-in arrangement, the accused sexually exploited her under the false promise of marriage, all while hiding his true identity and religion. The deception came to light when the woman discovered that the man’s real name was Shaan Khan, that he was a Muslim, and that he was already married. When she confronted him about marriage, he began pressuring her to convert to Islam if she wanted to marry him. Upon her refusal, he physically assaulted her. Traumatised by the ongoing abuse and deception, the woman approached the police with the support of a Hindu organisation. An FIR was registered under relevant sections, including charges of rape and provisions of the SC/ST Act. As of the time of this report, the accused was arrested.

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: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - Man pretends to be Hindu. 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 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 pressured for religious conversion and sexually exploited by a Muslim man who pretended to be a Hindu. The perpetrator 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 the victim refused to convert, she was physically assaulted by the accused. By assaulting her, the accused attempted to instil fear and force compliance for religious conversion. These threats were not random; they were directly linked to her religious identity and her refusal to change it. Such threats are a form of psychological terror, aiming to harass the victim for her faith and are meant to break resistance and wear down the victim emotionally and psychologically. The accused’s actions, including physical assault and threats, were directly tied to the victim’s Hindu faith, intended to make the victim abandon her faith, making the case a textbook example of religiously motivated hate crime. 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. The combination of deception, sexual exploitation, and physical violence all aimed at pressuring a Hindu woman to abandon her 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: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the woman’s ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.