Hindu Dalit woman ends life after relentless pressure to convert to Islam by Muslim man posing as Hindu
Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India 
8 February, 2025
Case Summary
In Noida, Uttar Pradesh, a 22-year-old Hindu Dalit woman committed suicide after being lured into a relationship by a Muslim man named Sahil Qureshi. He posed as a Hindu to deceive her into a relationship. When his true identity was revealed, he forced her to convert to Islam and marry him, threatening to kill her and her family if she refused. The woman, distressed by the situation, died by suicide. According to media reports, the deceased worked at the DLF mall in Sector-18. She met Sahil Qureshi, who trapped her in a relationship by concealing his identity. The accused approached the victim with a Hindu name. After his identity came to light, he pressured her to embrace Islam. When she refused, he threatened her and her family with violence. The constant mental harassment and death threats pushed the woman into severe distress, ultimately leading her to suicide. Her mother filed a police complaint, after which Sahil Qureshi was arrested. Reports also indicate that Sahil Qureshi's friend, Izhar Ahmed, had prior cases filed against him for allegedly trapping Hindu women and forcibly converting them to Islam. According to the mother’s police complaint, multiple cases against Izhar were registered at the Phaphund police station for similar activities. Sahil and Izhar were allegedly part of a network involved in forcibly converting Hindu women, with the support of an accomplice named Jayesh Dubey. Jayesh spread misinformation about the victim and publicly defended the accused by pressuring the victims on social media. On October 13, 2023, he took Rs 20,000 from the deceased, promising to file a police complaint against Sahil, but took no legal action. Despite this, Sahil continued to threaten the woman. Overwhelmed by the ongoing harassment and threats, the woman died by suicide, hanging herself in her room. Following her death, the grieving mother filed a complaint against Sahil, Izhar, and Jayesh. The police arrested the main accused, Sahil Qureshi, and launched an investigation into the other suspects.
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 and Pattern of targeting Hindu women. 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 before marriage. 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. 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, 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. 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 the situations, 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. The third 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 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. The fourth sub-category selected is - Suicide for being forced to or pressured to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with a non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity 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. In some of these cases, unable to bear the pressure/threat/violence being mounted by the non-Hindu partner to convert, the Hindu woman commits suicide. In such cases, often, threats are also given to the family members of the Hindu woman. Since such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim, leading to the woman committing suicide, these cases are categorized as a hate crime. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man who deliberately posed as a Hindu. His malicious intent is evident from the outset as the accused deliberately concealed his 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 her trust, targeting 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. Once his true identity was revealed, Sahil Qureshi began pressuring the victim to convert to Islam and marry him under Islamic law. This demand was not part of an equal or consensual relationship—it was coercive and explicitly tied to her religious identity. The victim was unwilling to abandon her Hindu faith, yet the accused insisted on conversion as a precondition to marriage. This is a textbook example of the pattern, where the perpetrator weaponises the relationship to compel the victim to change religion against her will. When the victim refused to convert, Sahil Qureshi threatened to kill her and her family. These threats amounted to a direct assault on her safety and dignity, purely because she chose to retain her Hindu identity. The threats extended beyond her to her family, showing the seriousness of the coercion. This tactic of coercion and intimidation, combined with deceit and force, underscores the underlying agenda of religious conversions. These are not isolated or random incidents, but crimes deeply rooted in animosity towards the victim’s faith. Such cases are glaring examples of bigotry and hatred directed at the Hindu community. The suicide in this case was the direct result of sustained, religion-based coercion, where the victim’s Hindu identity was persistently targeted for erasure. The pressure to abandon her faith, coupled with threats of violence against her and her family, created an environment of extreme psychological distress. This was not a case of general relationship discord but a deliberate, religiously motivated assault on her right to live as a Hindu. Her death, therefore, was the culmination of targeted hate intended to force religious conversion, making it an unequivocal hate crime against Hindus. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the woman's ordeal began, but it mentions that the victim died by suicide on 9th February, 2025. Since this is the earliest date mentioned, we are considering this as when the victim's ordeal began and using this as the incident date. While media coverage of the incident emerged later, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
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
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
