Dalit Hindu woman befriended, raped, and coerced for religious conversion and marriage by Muslim man in Madhya Pradesh
Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India 
1 March, 2024
Case Summary
In Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, a 26-year-old married Hindu woman was lured, raped, and coerced into religious conversion by a Muslim man named Rafiq. According to reports, the victim belonged to the Dalit Hindu community. She came into contact with the accused when he was hired to lay tiles in her house about one and a half years ago, in 2024. During this period, he lured and befriended her, and they started hanging out together. When the victim needed Rs. 5000, she borrowed the money from Rafiq, providing her gold mangalsutra as collateral. Despite repayment of the loan, Rafiq refused to return her mangalsutra, demanded her husband's money, and coerced her into having physical relations with him. Furthermore, the accused also pressured her to convert to Islam and marry him. When the victim resisted, Rafiq threatened to kill her husband and coerced her into complying with his demands. Based on these threats, he sexually abused her multiple times. On 2nd September 2025, Rafiq again visited her house and forcibly raped her and threatened her that she must convert to Islam if she wanted to live. The victim informed the accused's wife of these incidents, who attempted to intervene, but the accused became even more aggressive. He threatened to defame the Hindu victim and kill her and her husband. The victim then disclosed the full extent of the abuse to her husband, after which they filed a complaint with the police. The police registered a case under sections of rape, the Religious Freedom Act, and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Atrocity) Act. Rafiq was subsequently arrested by the police.
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 first subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - Rape and sexual assault/harassment. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. The second sub-category selected is - Forced conversion before marriage. The tertiary category selected is- 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 third sub-category selected 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 fourth sub-category selected is - Rape for refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. As the case may be, in such cases, the non-Hindu man forces himself sexually on the Hindu woman when she refuses his advances and pressures to convert her religion. The rape of the woman is often seen as either a punishment for the woman refusing to convert. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The fifth 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. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. This case has been added to the tracker because a married Hindu woman was lured, raped, and coerced into religious conversion by the Muslim accused. The accused deceived her into friendship, manipulated her and threatened her with the eventual goal of religious conversion. The accused pressured the victim to convert to Islam and marry him, and when she resisted these demands, the accused threatened to kill her husband and sexually abused her in order to make her comply. In this incident, sexual violence serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention is to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she can be converted. This is not random violence; it is systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. The Muslim accused attempted to force the Hindu woman to renounce her religion and convert to Islam for marriage. Pressuring a Hindu woman to discard her religious faith and embrace another is a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. It is not a matter of personal choice; it is coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. The deception and exploitation, in this case, were carried out with the calculated intention of achieving his underlying objective of religious conversion. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act is not simply about having a relationship with the Hindu woman, but about erasing her Hindu identity itself, making it a religiously motivated crime. The victim was subjected to death threats to force her compliance with the accused's demands for religious conversion. Such threats, targeting a Hindu victim to coerce her to convert to Islam, clearly demonstrate the religiously motivated nature of the crime. The accused also raped the woman to make her convert to Islam. Such actions clearly demonstrate that this was not merely a case of sexual exploitation. He sought to strip the victim of her Hindu identity and force her to adopt Islam. These acts are not isolated instances of sexual assault, but rather actions rooted in animosity towards the victim’s faith. In this context, rape is used as a tool to punish the Hindu victim and make her comply with the Muslim perpetrator's demand of forced conversion, making it a religiously motivated crime. The accused also blackmailed the Hindu victim, threatening to defame her, which further proves that the accused wanted to convert the victim to Islam at any cost. 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. Given that this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database. 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, though it is mentioned that the victim came into contact with the accused about one and a half years ago. It also mentions that recently, on 2nd September 2025, she was raped and pressured to convert by the Muslim accused. Therefore, an indicative date of 2nd March 2024 is being used as an indicative date of the incident. Hinduphobia Tracker records the date when the victim's ordeal begins rather than when it is reported by the media.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
