Shamli 'Nikah Trap' Case: Gym Trainer and Father Arrested Over Alleged Forced Conversion

Police in Uttar Pradesh have booked nine people after a local businessman alleged his son was coerced into changing his religion through a calculated extortion scheme.

A routine fitness regimen in Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, has spiraled into a complex criminal investigation after a local medicine trader, Devraj Malik, accused his 30-year-old son, Ayush Malik, of being ensnared in a premeditated religious conversion plot. The police have acted swiftly, arresting a woman gym trainer and her father, who are at the center of allegations involving a "nikah trap" and subsequent financial exploitation.

According to the complaint filed by the elder Malik, the trouble began when the trainer, identified as Chandni Qureshi, established a professional relationship with Ayush as his physiotherapist. What allegedly started as a trainer-client rapport transitioned into a romantic association, which the family claims was merely a facade to facilitate the conversion. The police report states that Ayush was eventually taken to Delhi, where a nikah was purportedly performed using forged documentation to formalize the conversion to Islam.

The Shamli police, led by Superintendent of Police NP Singh, have registered a case against nine individuals. The charges are severe, invoking the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for extortion, cheating, and forgery. The FIR also includes provisions under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, signaling the state’s continued strict stance on cases involving allegations of coerced religious shifts.

The Mechanics of the Alleged Scam

Investigators are currently piecing together the timeline of events. The prosecution’s case hinges on the claim that the entire relationship was a manufactured scheme designed to gain leverage over the victim. According to the police, the accused did not stop at religious conversion; they allegedly leveraged the situation to exert criminal intimidation, ultimately using the victim’s compromised position to extract money from his family.

As the investigation widens, authorities are looking into the role of the other seven individuals named in the complaint, including a maulvi allegedly involved in the ceremony. While the woman and her father, Islam Qureshi, remain in custody, the police are now working to verify the authenticity of the documents recovered from the Delhi site where the marriage is said to have taken place.

Why it matters

This incident highlights the deepening friction in Western Uttar Pradesh, where the state’s anti-conversion law has become a primary instrument for policing personal relationships and religious intermingling. By framing the case as a nexus of extortion, forgery, and forced conversion, the authorities are looking beyond the religious aspect to the broader criminal intent. For observers, this case serves as a reminder of how private disputes—often involving marriage and personal choice—are increasingly being funneled through the prism of state-level statutes, turning domestic grievances into high-stakes legal battles that test the limits of consent and coercion.