Hindu woman coerced and threatened for religious conversion by Muslim perpetrators in Indore

Case ID : e275588 | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 21 September, 2025

Case ID : e275588

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

21 September, 2025

Hindu woman coerced and threatened for religious conversion by Muslim perpetrators in Indore

Predatory Proselytisation

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Khajrana area of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman was coerced and threatened to embrace Islam by three Muslim individuals identified as Baba Shahid Sheikh, his associate Sahil Pathan, and Tabassum Bano. According to reports, the victim had been living separately after being abandoned by her husband and was supporting herself and her children through work. She came into contact with a Muslim woman named Tabassum Bano, the wife of the suspended Ujjain Deputy Collector, Mohammad Siraj, while employed at her house. Tabassum introduced the victim to Baba Shahid Sheikh and his associate Sahil Pathan, claiming that he would relieve her of her personal difficulties. The Baba conducted rituals, forcing the victim to dissolve an amulet in water and drink it with ashes. When this did not change her conditions, she was asked to stop performing pujas according to the Hindu tradition and was pressured to convert to Islam. Baba Shahid Sheikh became enraged and declared that no medicine or amulet would be effective unless she changed her religious practices and embraced Islam. Furthermore, Tabassum also persistently pressured her to convert, even telling her that they would get her daughter married to a Muslim man if she converted. When the victim refused, she was subjected to death threats and defamation of her and her children. The victim was also subjected to constant mental torture and threats that left her deeply distressed. Subsequently, the victim filed a complaint, based on which the FIR was registered under sections 351(3), 61 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and sections 3/5 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act against the three accused. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. 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. The other sub-category selected 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism. In several cases, Hindus are converted or an attempt is made to convert Hindus by denigrating their faith, Hinduism. In such cases, the Hindus associate with the non-Hindu perpetrators often by choice and then, the attempt to convert them by insulting their faith, showing the faith down etc begins. An example of this would be a non-Hindu gathering where the Hindus are attending the gathering of their own free will. However, once they attend the gathering, there is an explicit attempt to convert them by abusing their faith and hailing the faith of the perpetrator. The denigration of the Hindu faith is often based on misrepresentation of the Hindu faith, its doctrine and scriptures and insult to espoused traditions if not blatant lies about Hindu beliefs and ways. Such conversions or attempts at conversions are driven by animosity towards the Hindu faith and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The other sub-category selected here 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was coerced and threatened for religious conversion by the Muslim perpetrators. The accused, Tabassum, and others, took advantage of the vulnerable situation of the victim, emotionally manipulated her, and took her to a Baba who claimed he could relieve her problems. These were not random acts of kindness but calculated moves to exploit her vulnerability, create dependency, and then use this dependency to pressure her for religious conversion. Offering inducements or making false promises in this way was a form of coercion and a deliberate attempt to manipulate Hindu victims because of their religion. The perpetrators even said that they would get her daughter married if she converted, which was another tool to push her towards conversion. This showed a clear pattern of predatory proselytisation where personal distress was turned into a weapon to force conversion. Such coercion strips people of their agency and dignity and results in coerced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents but part of a pattern rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims. The victim was further pressured to stop performing pujas according to Hindu tradition. This was intended to isolate her and sever her ties with her faith and cultural roots, making conversion easier. She was told that until she abandoned Hinduism, her condition would not change. Such actions exposed the contempt and hostility directed towards Hinduism and its practices, showing how the denigration of the victim’s faith was being used as a tactic to weaken her resistance. Furthermore, when the victim refused to convert, she was mentally tortured, given death threats and defamation threats. This sustained pattern of coercion underscores that the crime was not a random or isolated incident but a deliberate effort to impose religious conversion through intimidation and threats. The intention is to break the victim down emotionally, physically, and spiritually to make her comply. This was not random; it is systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Such actions violate the victim’s fundamental rights, including her religious freedom and autonomy to choose her 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 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. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s ordeal began. However, in this case, the report does not provide specific details regarding when the perpetrators pressured the victim for conversion. Therefore, for documentation purposes, the date of the incident has been recorded as the date it was reported in the media - September 22, 2025.