Hindu woman lured into marriage by Muslim man posing as Hindu, forced to perform namaz, idols of Hindu deities thrown away

Case ID : ea34afc | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 31 December, 2005

Case ID : ea34afc

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

31 December, 2005

Hindu woman lured into marriage by Muslim man posing as Hindu, forced to perform namaz, idols of Hindu deities thrown away

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Marries as per Hindu rituals

Forced conversion after marriage

Forced to read Kalma

Forced to wear Hijab

Desecration of Hindu symbols in relationship

Case Summary

A Hindu woman in Indore has accused her husband of deceit. She said that her husband, Sameer Mir, who is the Chairman of Bhavans College in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, lured her into marriage, posing as a Hindu. She was later forced, assaulted, and threatened to convert to Islam. The husband forced her to perform Namaz and also threw the idols of Hindu gods and goddesses away from their house. She was also coerced into observing Roza and wearing a Burqa. The husband forced her to convert to Islam against her will. According to the victim, her husband’s behaviour changed about 4 years ago. Sameer himself started visiting the mosque and praying Namaz. And at that time, she was shocked to know her husband’s full name was Sameer Mir, and he is Muslim. According to Dainik Bhaskar, the accused married the victim according to Hindu customs in 2006, and the woman gave birth to two children. For 15 years, the woman was tricked into believing that Sameer was a Hindu. However, his behaviour changed about 4 years ago. He started reading namaz and altered his attire, and pressured the victim to read namaz and accept Islam. He also threw away all the idols of Hindu deities from the house. In 2020, the woman was kicked out of her house by Sameer for not converting to Islam. After this, she shifted to the Nipania area, where Sameer followed her and pressured her to adopt Islam. In 2024, there was an agreement between the two. However, on March 13, 2025, Sameer again went to her house, threatening and forcing her to convert to Islam. The victim stated that she was abused, forced, and physically assaulted for not complying with the demands of Sameer. Troubled by this, the victim complained to the MIG police station. The victim also submitted photographs of the wedding as evidence to the police. The police registered a case against the accused under sections 296, 115(2), 351(3) of the Indian Penal Code (BNS) and section 3/5 of the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act 2021.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker un the primary category of - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The sub-category selected here is - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary sub-categories being - Name changed and Marries as per Hindu rituals. 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 relevant here is- Desecration of Hindu symbols in relationship. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces insult and desecration of her faith (Hinduism) and its symbol because of the inherent disregard for polytheism of the non-Hindu partner. 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 desecrating the religious symbols of the Hindu partner out of spite for her faith. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The third sub-category selected as per case details is- Forced conversion after marriage. Within this, the tertiary categories relevant are- Forced to read Kalma, Forced to wear Hijab. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for Halala, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The other 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 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. The case exhibits multiple religious markers that clearly establish it as a religiously motivated crime specifically targeting a Hindu victim. Firstly, the accused, a Muslim man, deliberately concealed his religious identity to deceive the Hindu woman and also married the woman as per Hindu rituals. This act itself demonstrates a clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim’s religion. By hiding his true identity, he manipulated her trust and targeted her under false pretences, indicating a premeditated effort to exploit her based on her religious background. Additionally, the marriage conducted according to Hindu rituals legitimised the relationship in the eyes of the woman and her wider community. This constituted a direct violation of her right to informed consent regarding whom she chose to marry, as well as an infringement upon her religious beliefs. After the deception was exposed, the woman was subjected to physical assault and coercion, with specific demands to convert to Islam and abandon her own religious practices. The idols of Hindu deities were thrown out of the house by the accused. Hinduism holds its deities in deep reverence, considering them sacrosanct. The desecration of Hindu idols, as seen in this case where the deities were thrown away, is viewed as sacrilegious. Such actions are often driven by deep-seated animosity and deliberate intent to insult Hinduism. Further, the harassment intensified when the woman refused to convert, and she was threatened and physically assaulted. This violent retaliation further reinforces the religious motive. The severity of the attack, combined with the deception, aligns with a well-documented pattern of Hindu women being targeted for exploitation, often with an underlying agenda of religious conversion. Such cases are not isolated incidents but part of a broader trend where identity concealment is used as a strategic tool to entrap Hindu women before coercion or violence follows upon resistance. Thus, the perpetrator’s deliberate decision to hide his religious identity strongly underscores the religious motive behind this crime. In such instances, identity concealment is not just a deceptive tactic for personal reasons but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. The accused was evidently aware that the victim, being Hindu, would likely refuse his advances if she knew his real identity, and he circumvented this by lying, which directly points to a religiously driven intent. This deception reflects a larger pattern where Hindu women are specifically singled out using false identities, often with coercion or conversion in mind. Such targeted victimisation based on religion not only demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism but also exposes a deeper animosity toward Hindus and their beliefs. This is why this case has been included in the tracker, as it exemplifies a clear instance of religiously motivated hate and exploitation. Disclaimer: Media reports state that the victim's ordeal began when she met the accused in 2006, though no exact date or month is provided. To document this case, we have used an indicative date—January 1, 2006—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on May 9, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.