Hindu woman harassed, demanded money and forced to convert to Islam over social media in Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : ea34d6c | Location : Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 4 May, 2025

Case ID : ea34d6c

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

4 May, 2025

Hindu woman harassed, demanded money and forced to convert to Islam over social media in Uttar Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

A Hindu girl from the Para area of Lucknow received obscene messages on her phone, along with threats pressuring her to convert to Islam and demands for money. The Hinduphobia tracker managed to contact the local police, and the police confirmed that the girl was forced to convert to Islam. The accused sent multiple obscene videos to her email, demanded she convert to Islam, and asked for money. Initially, the girl ignored these messages. However, the accused escalated their actions by calling, blackmailing her, and continuing to demand money. The victim said that the emails were sent from the following IDs: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. When she did not respond, the harassment continued on social media, including Instagram, where the accused pressured her to convert through direct messages. After informing her family, a complaint was lodged at the Cyber Cell in Hazratganj as well as a written complaint at the Para police station. Inspector Suresh Kumar Singh stated that the accused were making internet calls to the girl, and the police began investigating the matter based on the provided phone numbers, Instagram, and email IDs.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of- Predatory Proselytisation. The sub-category selected 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 as an instance of hate crime against a Hindu girl because the threats and harassment she faced were specifically targeted at her religious identity. The accused not only sent her obscene messages and videos, but also pressured her to convert to another religion and demanded money. The harassment escalated when she did not comply, extending to social media and direct calls, all with the intent to intimidate her based on her faith. This act clearly demonstrates that this crime was committed due to deep-seated religious animosity towards the victim and her Hindu identity. The threats and harassment were to coerce the victim into converting to Islam. The perpetrator aimed at stripping the victim of her religious identity. This makes it an instance of religiously motivated crime against a Hindu girl. Such actions go beyond ordinary harassment or extortion, they are motivated by bias and hostility towards her religious background. The repeated demands for religious conversion, combined with threats and blackmail, show that the perpetrators singled her out because she is Hindu. This pattern of targeting someone due to their Hindu faith, intending to coerce him/her to abandon their faith and adopt an alien faith, threatening them with harm for not complying with the demands, is what makes this a case of hate crime. Therefore, it is being categorised under the hate crime database.