Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu, coerced into conversion and forced to observe Islamic practices
Banda, Uttar Pradesh, India 
8 May, 2025
Case Summary
In Banda, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man named Irshad, who posed as a Hindu. She was forcefully converted and married. After marriage, she was physically assaulted and forced to have sexual relations with the accused's friends. According to news reports, the victim was lured into a relationship by Irshad, who pretended to be Raju. She fell for this trap, and then the accused took her to Banda, where she was forcefully converted to Islam and married through a nikah. She was renamed Farah Anjum. After the marriage, Irshad pressured her to adopt and live according to Islamic customs. She later gave birth to Irshad’s son. Irshad began consuming alcohol and subjected her to harassment. He also forced the victim to have sexual relations with his friends. When the victim resisted, she was beaten mercilessly. The woman, along with her child, approached the Superintendent of Police and pleaded for justice.
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. The sub-category selected here is - Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected 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 subcategory is - Forced conversion before marriage, under which the tertiary category is - Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices 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. 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 pressurising 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 case, firstly, the accused, a Muslim man, deliberately concealed his religious identity to deceive the Hindu woman. 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. The deception was not just personal but religious, weaponising trust for the purpose of eventual religious conversion. This element of identity fraud, targeted specifically at the victim’s religious identity, establishes a religiously motivated hate angle. The victim faced pressure to adopt Islam. The accused forced her to follow Islamic practices. This wasn’t a mutual choice but a demand that targeted her Hindu beliefs, aiming to suppress her identity. The requirement of nikah, which involves converting to Islam, served as a means of religious coercion. This coercion directly infringed upon her religious freedom, stripping her of the right to practice her own faith and maintain her religious identity. The use of force in converting her, along with compelling her to observe Islamic rituals, demonstrates an attempt to erase her Hindu identity and impose Islamic practices upon her. Hence, this case clearly qualifies as a hate crime against Hindus, as the actions of the accused were not merely personal violations but deeply rooted in religious hostility. The deliberate deception, coercion to abandon the Hindu faith, and the imposition of Islamic practices were all targeted attacks on the victim’s religious identity. These were not isolated actions of exploitation but part of a broader pattern of religiously motivated abuse aimed at erasing the victim's cultural and spiritual self. Such acts, driven by contempt for the Hindu religion and carried out through manipulation and force, fulfil the criteria of a hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the woman’s ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
