Hindu woman forced to convert to Islam by Muslim man in Satna, Madhya Pradesh
Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India 
29 August, 2025
Case Summary
A Hindu woman was abducted by a Muslim man named Shahnawaz Qureshi in Satna, Madhya Pradesh and was being taken to Delhi for religious conversion. The incident came to light at Dumna Airport in Jabalpur, where the two were stopped before boarding a flight. The woman’s family had already filed a complaint of kidnapping, stating that Qureshi had been harassing their daughter for a long time. Her father told the police that despite repeated refusals, Qureshi continued to threaten the family and pressured them to change their faith. At the airport, members of Hindu Jagran Manch intervened and demanded that security personnel hand over the man and woman to the police. This led to an uproar, after which the police arrived and took both into custody for questioning. The young man was detained at the airport post, while the woman was sent to Nari Niketan for protection. The family maintained that Qureshi intended to kidnap their daughter and convert her to Islam by force. Police confirmed that the allegations are under investigation and that the woman’s statement will also be recorded.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. The secondary category under this is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category under this is: Family claims grooming. 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 the 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The second sub-category selected is- Harassment, threat and 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. This incident qualifies as a hate crime because it contains elements of both manipulative proselytisation and coercive intimidation. The victim’s family revealed that Shahnawaz Qureshi had been persistently harassing their daughter despite her repeated refusals, which points to a pattern of grooming and manipulation intended to wear down her resistance and ultimately push her toward religious conversion. His plan to take her to Delhi for conversion underscores the deliberate intent of altering her religious identity through subtle indoctrination. At the same time, the case also involves direct harassment and coercion. The father stated that Qureshi issued threats and pressured the family to change their faith, and the abduction itself reflects a forceful attempt to override the victim’s consent. Together, these factors establish the incident as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date on which the ordeal of the victim started. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.
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 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
