Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu; sexually exploited and pressured to convert to Islam

Case ID : ef6548b | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 16 June, 2025

Case ID : ef6548b

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

16 June, 2025

Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu; sexually exploited and pressured to convert to Islam

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion after marriage

Forced to wear Hijab

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a 40-year-old Hindu woman was deceived into a relationship for religious conversion and sexual exploitation by a Muslim man named Shahnawaz, who pretended to be Hindu. The victim was divorced in 2011. She had one son and one daughter from her first marriage. According to the victim, she met the accused in 2016 at the MTH compound, where he introduced himself as a Hindu man named Shyam Patel. They gradually entered into a relationship, and the accused had sexual relations with her on the pretext of marriage. His real identity was revealed when the victim's sister heard him speaking on the phone with someone, greeting him with “Assalamualaikum.” Being suspicious, the woman checked his Aadhaar card and found his real name was Shahnawaz and he was a Muslim. When confronted, he initially gave excuses, but he somehow manipulated her to continue the relationship. In 2022, the woman gave birth to a daughter. Over time, he started pressuring her to convert to Islam, telling her to wear a burqa and offer namaz. When she resisted, he physically assaulted her. Based on the victim's complaint, a case was registered by the police under rape and Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act. As of the date of writing this report, the accused was arrested by the police, and the investigation was ongoing.

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. Within it, the sub-category selected is: Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: 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 sub-category selected here is: - Forced conversion after marriage, with the tertiary category being: - 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, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship. 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. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo 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 third sub-category selected here 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 pressurizing 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. This incident qualifies as a hate crime due to the clear presence of religiously motivated targeting, deception, and abuse. Shahnawaz deliberately concealed his Muslim religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited the trust of the Hindu woman and targeted her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. After his true identity was revealed, the accused began coercing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam. He told her to wear a burqa and read namaz, not as a random suggestion, but it was his deliberate and malicious attempt at forced conversion. These were symbolic impositions of Islamic religious identity and lifestyle on her, aimed at slowly eroding the woman's Hindu identity and cultural beliefs. Furthermore, when she resisted conversion, Shahnawaz physically assaulted her. This proves that he was never interested in a genuine relationship with the Hindu girl; instead, his only goal was religious conversion and sexual exploitation of a Hindu woman. The woman’s Hindu identity became the point of attack, first through deception, then through coercion, and finally through violence, marking this as a hate crime in both intent and execution. This kind of behaviour stems from deeper religious animosity 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. Thus, it was the woman's Hindu identity that was the point of attack, first through deception, then through coercion, and finally through violence. 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: 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.