Anees pretends to be Surya, blackmails Hindu woman into physical relationship, pressures her to convert to Islam

Case ID : 0b674ab | Location : Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 6 July, 2024

Case ID : 0b674ab

Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

6 July, 2024

Anees pretends to be Surya, blackmails Hindu woman into physical relationship, pressures her to convert to Islam

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Case Summary

In Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, a man named Anees posed as "Surya" to deceive a Hindu woman. Anees befriended the woman, expressed love, and then secretly recorded a video of them together. He later used this video to blackmail her into a physical relationship. The video was sent to the woman's husband, leading to a quarrel and their eventual separation. After the separation, the woman entered a relationship with Anees, who later disappeared. When she went to his home, she discovered that Anees was actually a Muslim man who had been married four times. Anees pressured her to convert to Islam, stating that he would not accept her otherwise. The woman filed a police complaint, and Anees was arrested.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been documented as a religious hate crime because the details clearly show that the offender had a bias against the Hindu faith and that the offence was performed in conjunction with that bias. As per the details, the case has been listed under the prime category- Hate Crimes against women in relationship and sexual crimes, of the hate tracker. Two sub-categories have been chosen under this prime category. The first sub-category selected here is - Man pretends to be Hindu- 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. The relationship in such cases is mostly 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. In such cases, 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. What gives this case a distinct religious angle is that the Muslim perpetrator actively hid his religion and pretended to be a Hindu to ensnare the Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. Further, the religious angle of the crime became more apparent when the Muslim man continued to take advantage of her physically under the guise of marriage. He blackmailed her with her private pictures. Later, the Hindu victim was forced to convert to Islam. Such actions are not random but are directed specifically at individuals because of their religious affiliation. Whenever a man deliberately hides his religious identity to deceive a woman from a different faith into a relationship he intends to exploit the woman based on her spiritual identity. This is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. This targeted attack is a direct expression of hate and intolerance towards the victim's religion, hence this case has been classified as a religious hate crime.