Hindu girl subjected to casteist slurs, pressured to convert, and assaulted by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case ID : e274ea4 | Location : Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 27 July, 2025

Case ID : e274ea4

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

27 July, 2025

Hindu girl subjected to casteist slurs, pressured to convert, and assaulted 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

Blackmailed to convert

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu girl was lured, exploited under false pretences, and pressured to convert by a Muslim man named Saddam Qureshi, who posed as a Hindu. The victim was subjected to physical assault and casteist slurs. According to reports, the victim got acquainted with the accused in 2022, while she was a nursing student residing in Lucknow's Bakshi ka talab area. The accused lured the Hindu girl into a relationship by introducing himself with a fake Hindu identity named Sunil Gautam. The accused trapped the girl into a sustained romantic and sexual relationship and exploited her under the false promise of marriage. The Hindu girl, unaware of his real identity, believed she was in a genuine relationship with a fellow Hindu and expected marriage. When she began pressing for marriage, Saddam revealed his true identity, and that he was a Muslim, and his family demanded that she convert to Islam if she wanted a marriage. When she refused these demands, she was called to the accused's house and was subjected to physical assault, caste-based abuse, and death threats by the accused and his family members. The girl was then humiliated and thrown out of the house. Following this traumatic ordeal, the Hindu girl decided to file a complaint at the BKT police station in Lucknow on July 28. The police promptly arrested Saddam and booked him under Section 352/69 BNSS and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing to determine the extent of the deception and the possibility of a broader pattern of organised targeting. Police were also examining phone records, chats, and the role of the accused’s family, all of whom colluded in coercing the victim to convert to Islam. It was revealed that Saddam Qureshi, originally from Sampurnanagar in Kheri district, maintained a relationship with the victim for over three years.

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. Within this, the sub-category selected is - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being - Name changed. 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. The other sub-category selected is - Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. 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 Dalit Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man, who pretended to be Hindu. The accused exploited the Hindu girl for over three years under the false promise of marriage. The perpetrator deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu girl. 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 asked for marriage, the accused revealed his true identity and, along with his family members, pressured the victim to convert to Islam. They essentially blackmailed her that if she wanted marriage would have to convert to Islam. When she refused, she was physically assaulted, humiliated, abused on caste lines, and given death threats. This violent retaliation further reinforces the religious motive. When a Hindu woman resists conversion, the perpetrator may feel his perceived authority or dominance is being challenged, not just personally, but ideologically. This leads to retaliatory acts such as harassment or physical assault, designed to punish and break the will of the victim until she submits. Thus, the violence is not random. It is religiously motivated coercion, aimed at eroding the victim’s identity and forcing conformity through fear. Such acts are inherently rooted in hate, not just toward the individual, but toward the faith she represents. This dynamic is what makes the incident not just a case of personal violence, but a hate crime with clear religious motives. Additionally, she was subjected to caste-based abuses as well. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at the micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not the Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, the accused and his family hurled caste abuses at the victim because of their animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. The fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim further proves the communal nature of the whole crime. Such 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. 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 victim's ordeal began, but it mentions that the victim filed a case on 28th July, 2025. Since this is the earliest date mentioned, we are considering this as when the victim's ordeal began and using this as the incident date. While media coverage of the incident emerged later, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported. Disclaimer: Since the police have only arrested Saddam in this case, the number of perpetrators is recorded as 1. Although Saddam's family members were also involved in the crime, the exact number of those involved has not been officially confirmed.