In Bihar, Wasim posed as Manoj to marry a Hindu woman, abondoned her 15 years later after his true identity was revealed, fled with cash and victim's jewellery

Case ID : 0b66ef2 | Location : Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 27 February, 2024

Case ID : 0b66ef2

Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India

27 February, 2024

In Bihar, Wasim posed as Manoj to marry a Hindu woman, abondoned her 15 years later after his true identity was revealed, fled with cash and victim's jewellery

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Case Summary

In Bhalubasa, within the Sitaramdera police station area in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, a Muslim youth deceived a woman by pretending to be a Hindu. He married her and lived with her for 15 years before refusing to recognize her and fleeing with her jewellery and money. Rita first met Wasim Khan, who posed as Manoj Jaiswal, while working. After her husband left her, she started living with "Manoj" and later discovered his true identity as Wasim Khan. Wasim owns a shop in Kandra, Seraikela-Kharsawan district. When Rita tried to separate from him, he threatened her with acid attacks and harm to her children, eventually torturing her. Desperate for help, Rita went to Sitaramdera police station to lodge a complaint but was told they couldn't assist. She then went to Sakchi Mahila police station and filed a written complaint, but no action was taken. Wasim remained at large with her jewellery and Rs 30,000.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In this instance, the religious motive of the Muslim perpetrator became apparent from the fact that he actively hid his religious identity to deceive the Hindu victim. This is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. 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. Since the religious motive of the crime is evident from the fact that the man pretended to be a Hindu to trap a Hindu woman, this case has been documented as a hate crime.