Hindu man attempts suicide after being tortured to convert and marry Muslim woman
Yamunanagar, Haryana, India 
31 December, 2023
Case Summary
A Hindu man named Ankush Walia from Pratapnagar, Yamunanagar, Haryana, attempted suicide after recording an 11-minute video in which he detailed being blackmailed, extorted, and pressured to accept Islam. In the video, Ankush accused Tanzeem Sayyed from Behat in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, and her family of trapping him. He said Tanzeem first came to his electronics shop on January 1 2024, and later invited him to her house, where he was drugged and secretly filmed in a compromising situation. From then, he said, continuous blackmail began. Ankush stated that Tanzeem and her family extorted Rs 2 lakh in February, Rs 30 lakh in April, and Rs 5 lakh in July and August 2025, in addition to monthly payments of up to Rs 1 Lakh. On 12 February 2025, Ankush was forcibly married to Tanzeem through a nikahnama, which was later made public. Tanzeem also filed a false FIR against Ankush in April 2025 and demanded Rs 5 lakh to withdraw it. He stated that her family threatened him with knives and pressured him to convert to Islam before the marriage. In his video, Ankush held Tanzeem, her father, Murshad, Ahsan, Baqir, her sister Iram, and her brother-in-law directly responsible for his suffering. He asked forgiveness from his wife Seema, his child Radhe, and his mother, urging his family to take care of each other after him. Pratapnagar police stated that no formal complaint had been lodged yet, while the family continued to search for Ankush as the video circulated online.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. The first subcategory under this is: Suicide after pressure to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, owing to the humiliation or pressure/threat, the victim commits suicide. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The pressure/threat that is employed leads to the Hindu victim taking his own life. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing suicide by the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The second subcategory under this 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 second primary category in this case is: Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women. The first subcategory under this is: Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is blackmailed to convert his religion. 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 woman starts blackmailing a Hindu man to convert his religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu man is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to his 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. Another subcategory under this is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category under this is: Victim says was brainwashed/groomed. 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. This case has been added to the tracker because the Hindu man was blackmailed, forced into marriage, pressured to convert, and ultimately driven to attempt suicide. His religious identity as a Hindu was at the centre of the pressure, threats, and coercion, which makes this a case of a religiously motivated hate crime. Ankush spoke clearly that he was forced into a nikah, threatened with knives, and pressured to abandon his Hindu faith. The use of blackmail through intimate recordings and the constant financial extortion were not simply criminal acts of greed; they were instruments of pressure to break his will as a Hindu. His faith became the point of attack. The demand that he convert was not a secondary element but the central purpose, showing that the violence against him was rooted in hostility toward his religious identity. The role of the woman’s parents and family cannot be overlooked. Far from being bystanders, they actively participated in the coercion. Their involvement shows that this was not a matter of two individuals in conflict but a broader collective effort to subjugate a Hindu youth. When an entire family turns against a victim in this way, it reveals how deep the hostility runs, moving beyond individual malice to a shared determination to enforce submission. The combined force of intimate betrayal and family-backed intimidation created a situation where Ankush was left with no safe space, no chance of escape, and no one to protect him. This case reveals how hatred against Hindus is enacted not only through physical assaults but also through calculated psychological warfare. The pattern of grooming, manipulation, and eventual coercion shows that such crimes are not isolated lapses of morality but part of a deeper social hostility where Hindus are treated as targets for erasure or humiliation. What pushed Ankush towards suicide was not only personal despair but the weight of being cornered, stripped of dignity, and denied the right to remain in his faith. When a Hindu is pressured to convert under threats of exposure and violence, it is not merely a private matter; it reflects an environment where Hindus are systematically undermined. The hatred here is intrinsic; it is directed not at what Ankush did, but at who he was: a Hindu who was expected to surrender his faith or face destruction. His suffering illustrates the lived reality of Hinduphobia, where coercion is designed to break both the individual's and the community’s confidence in their own identity. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. The earliest date mentioned is January 1 2024, when she first met the accused. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as January 1 2024, though the media reported the incident on August 20, 2025.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- 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
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
