Hindu girl deceived, harassed and pressured for nikah by Muslim youth pretending to be Hindu in Saharanpur
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
29 July, 2025
Case Summary
In Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu girl, along with her family, was deceived, threatened and pressured for Nikah (Islamic marriage) by a Muslim youth named Rehan, who posed as a Hindu. According to reports, the victim's family stated that they came into contact with the accused about a month ago, in July 2025. The accused, introduced as a Hindu man named Vishal, claimed that he wanted to help them, since they were going through financial troubles. He started giving money for household rations and promised employment opportunities to Vikas, the victim's father. Gradually, the family began to trust him, unaware that his true intentions were directed towards their daughter. When the family started to inquire about the accused's identity, they discovered that his real name was Rehan and that he was a Muslim. Due to this, the family started distancing themselves from him; however, he repeatedly contacted them and started pressuring them to marry their daughter to him. He also threatened to kill them if they refused. He used to send obscene messages and threats to the victim and continued to exert pressure on her to undergo Nikah. The victim, who worked at a loan company, grew fearful and was scared of going to work due to constant harassment by the accused. Fed up with the ordeal, the family submitted a formal application to the Senior Superintendent of Police detailing these events and requested strict action against Rehan while seeking security for their daughter. The SSP, Ashish Tiwari, ordered an investigation into the matter and assured the family of protection. Vijaykant Chauhan, a member of a Hindu organisation, accompanied the family to the SSP office and stated that Rehan targeted Hindu girls by exploiting vulnerable families and called for stringent measures against such acts.
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 subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected is- Name Changed and Pattern of targeting Hindu women. 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 other subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage, with the tertiary category being - Forced to do Nikah. 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 primary category selected here is - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected 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 other sub-category relevant here is - Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu girl was deceived, threatened, and pressured for Nikah by a Muslim accused who posed as a Hindu. The perpetrator deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate contact with the victim and her family. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited their trust, targeting them under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate the victim, along with her family, 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. The Muslim accused pressured and harassed the Hindu girl to undergo Nikah with him, thereby enforcing forced conversion upon her, as in Islam, conversion is seen as a prerequisite for Nikah/marriage. The conversion in such cases was not a by-product of personal association but a deliberate act aimed at erasing her Hindu identity in order to make her eligible for Nikah. The act of forcing Nikah in this way was essentially an attack on her religious autonomy, turning marriage into a vehicle for religious subjugation. This demonstrates a targeted strategy directed against an individual specifically because of animosity towards her religious identity. The accused's actions demonstrated not only exploitation but also deep-seated disrespect for the victim’s faith and religious autonomy. 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. It is also important to highlight here that the accused came into contact with the family under the guise of offering help due to the victim's troubled financial conditions. He gave them money for rations and promised a job for the victim’s father. These were not random acts of kindness but calculated moves to exploit their vulnerability, create dependency, and eventually use this to pressure their daughter into conversion and Nikah. Offering inducements in this way was a form of coercion and a deliberate attempt to manipulate Hindu victims because of their religion. This showed a clear pattern of predatory proselytisation where economic distress was turned into a weapon to force conversion. This form of coercion strips people of their agency and dignity and results in coerced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather cases deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims. 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: Media reports state that the victim's ordeal began when the accused came into contact with the family about a month ago, in July 2025, though no exact date is provided. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—July 30, 2025—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on August 30, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
Victim Details
Total Victim
3
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 3
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 2
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
