Hindu girl deceived, raped and coerced for conversion by Muslim man posing as Hindu; forced to wear burqa and undergo nikah
Maihar, Madhya Pradesh, India 
4 September, 2025
Case Summary
In Maihar, Satna district, a 21-year-old girl was deceived into a relationship, sexually exploited and pressured for religious conversion and Nikah (Islamic marriage) by a Muslim man named Sonu Khan, who pretended to be a Hindu. He also made the girl wear a burqa and threatened to kill her. According to reports, the victim used to visit her maternal uncle's home in Shyamnagar Patian Tola, where she came into contact with the accused, who was from a nearby Kulgarhi village. The accused introduced himself as a Hindu man named Sonu Chaudhary, and gradually deceived the girl into a relationship. On September 5, 2025, the accused lured her to a secluded spot near the Vishnu Sagar bus stand in Maihar, where he sexually exploited her under the false promise of marriage. Just three days later, on September 8, he made her wear a burqa and attempted to take her to court for Nikah, at which point he disclosed his real identity and that he was a Muslim. He then began pressuring her to convert to Islam and threatened to kill her when she resisted. Distressed by these events, the victim confided in her aunt, after which a complaint was filed with the police. Acting promptly, the police registered a case against the accused for rape on the pretext of marriage, fraud through concealment of religion, forced conversion, and criminal intimidation. The accused was arrested, produced before the court, and was subsequently sent to jail. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing. It was further revealed that the accused was in touch with her for many years by pretending to be a Hindu boy and sexually exploited her by giving the false promise of marriage.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The first subcategory under this is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category under this is: 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 - 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. 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. The third subcategory under this is: Forced conversion before marriage. The tertiary category under this is: Forced to wear hijab and 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 fourth subcategory under this 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 pressurising 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu girl was lured into a relationship and sexually exploited on the false promise of marriage by the Muslim accused, who faked a Hindu identity. The accused 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. The accused lured and manipulated her into a relationship. He forcibly made her wear a burqa, pressured her for religious conversion and attempted to perform nikah with her. This imposition of the burqa on the Hindu victim added another layer to this erasure of her Hindu identity. By forcing her to wear a burqa, the Muslim perpetrator attempted to strip her of her Hindu faith and impose foreign religious practices upon her. It was not merely about clothing; it symbolised the effort to overwrite her Hindu identity and forcibly assimilate her into practices of the Islamic faith. This again glaringly demonstrates the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Even sexual violence and threats, after she refused to convert, served a dual purpose of physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down emotionally, physically and spiritually, so that she could be converted for nikah. In Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited, which was why she was pressured for religious conversion. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. This shows that the Muslim perpetrator specifically targeted the Hindu victim for sexual exploitation and religious conversion, and when the victim refused to comply, he resorted to death threats in an effort to make her comply. These threats were not random acts of violence but were directly tied to her refusal to give up her Hindu faith. 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 until 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 none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. The earliest date mentioned is September 5, 2025, when she was taken to a secluded place and sexually exploited. 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 September 5, 2025, though the media reported the incident on September 12, 2025.
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 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
