Muslim man befriends married Dalit woman on Facebook, forcibly takes her to Mumbai and converts her to Islam before performing Nikah
Siddharthnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India 
30 May, 2023
Case Summary
In Uttar Pradesh's Siddharthnagar, a man identified as Sazaullah befriended a married woman from a Dalit family on Facebook. He then took her to Mumbai where he first forcibly converted her to Islam. He changed her name from Lakshmi to Muskaan. He then performed Nikah with her. The woman's husband Shailesh said that he got to know of Sazaullah's connection with his wife after he spoke to Lakshmi’s cousin. The cousin revealed that Lakshmi used to chat on Facebook with a boy from Siswan village, and the two also talked over the phone. Lakshmi reportedly told her uncle that she was taken to Mumbai forcibly and wanted to leave. After that, her phone was switched off. The accused was arrested, along with five others, and booked under sections 504 and 506 of the IPC, the SC/ST Act, and relevant provisions of Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
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. The relationship in such cases is mostly 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. In such cases, 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. In this specific case, it is clear that the Hindu woman voluntarily became friends with the Muslim man. There is also no indication that the Muslim man hid his religious identity to trap the Hindu woman. However, even though it was a consensual relationship, there was a distinct element of religious pressure which was asserted on the Hindu woman. In the current case, the victim has said that the perpetrator first changed her name to a Muslim name and then forcefully performed Nikah with her. Nikah is an Islamic marriage where one of the prerequisites is conversion to Islam if one of the parties is a non-Muslim. Even though the relationship was consensual, the victim has narrated how she was forced to leave with the perpetrator and also, the conversion to Islam was against her will. Since conversion of the Hindu woman was affected without her consent, this case is being categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime.
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
Sources 
