Pregnant Hindu woman commits suicide due to harassment by in-laws for conversion

Incident at Kupwad (Sangli)
Husband, mother-in-law and father-in-law arrested

Sangli, Maharashtra – A married pregnant woman committed suicide at her home in Yashwant Nagar, Kupwad due to inordinate oppression by family members of her husband forcing her to convert and continuously pressurising her to adopt Christianity. The name of the victim is Rutuja Sukumar Rajage [age-28 years]. The incident occurred on 06.06.2025. The relatives of Rutuja have accused her husband’s family of throttling her to death. Police have arrested her husband Sukumar Rajage [age-29 years], her mother-in-law, Alka Suresh Rajage [age-49 years] and father-in-law, Suresh Rajaram Rajage [age-53 years], filing a case against them. They have been sent to Police custody for 3 days.

Rutuja’s father Chandrakant Patil (Res. Gundewadi, Taluka Miraj), stated in a complaint –

1. Rutuja, from the shepherd community, was married to Sukumar Rajage from Yashwant Nagar, at Malgaon [Taluka Miraj] on 24.05.2021.

2. Sukumar and his family are Christians and pray and follow other rituals as per Christianity which was not known to Rutuja and her family till their marriage.

3. In June 2021, her mother-in-law Alka didn’t allow her to observe her first ‘Vat-Pournima’.

4. Her in-laws did not let her celebrate her first Diwali after marriage by advising her that Diwali was not celebrated by them and she should go with them to church for prayers.

5. Rutuja was earlier preparing for competitive examinations and after marriage, she appeared for Maharashtra Public Service Commission [MPSC] examination. She didn’t pass that examination and later, her in-laws didn’t let her even study for those examinations.

6. After her marriage, her husband, and in-laws started pressuring her to adopt Christianity as advised by their pastor; but Rutuja openly refused to convert which led to her husband, and in-laws starting to physically and mentally oppress her for the past three years. (Editor’s Perspective : ‘Christianisation’ of India is the main purpose of Christians for converting people. Christian missionaries and churches are working in India for this goal but none of the Governments has taken any action against them which is shameful for Hindus.)

7. During this period, Rutuja got pregnant when she was pressured to follow rituals as per Christianity. Later, Sukumar even used to thrash her.

8. Before Rutuja committed suicide, her father tried to make her in-laws understand; but the continuous pressure and oppression led to her committing suicide.

Editor’s Perspectives

There needs to be a law against conversion of religion with provision of severe punishment, since Christians are known to oppress people forcing conversion till they commit suicide.