Mohammad Alam, father of four, pressurises Dalit Hindu woman to convert to Islam and marry him. Strangulates her to death
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 
21 July, 2024
Case Summary
A case of murder linked to religious conversion emerged from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, involving Mohammad Alam, a married man with four children and Pooja Devi, a Dalit unmarried woman. Alam, who had been in a live-in relationship with Pooja for four years, had pressured her to convert to Islam and marry him (Nikah) despite being already married with four children. Six months after their marriage, Alam strangled her to death with her dupatta, because he didn’t want to keep her with him any longer. After committing the crime, Alam disposed of her body in the Ganga canal and deceitfully filed a missing person report on the same day. The crime came to light when Pooja’s sister, Poonam, reported her sister’s disappearance to the police, prompting an investigation. During the probe, Alam confessed to the murder. Additionally, it was reported that Alam had sexually harassed Pooja’s minor daughter from her previous marriage. Alam was arrested on July 24th.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The distinct element in this case that demonstrates that the Muslim perpetrator committed the crime while harbouring a bias against the Hindu faith is that forced the victim to convert to Islam and perform Nikah. This is why this case has been placed under the sub-category- Forced conversion before marriage- under the prime category- Hate crime against women in relationship and sexual crimes. 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. In this instance, there is no specific element of the Muslim accused hiding his identity. In such cases, the woman, in all probability, is made to believe that her faith would not stand in the way of their relationship. Here too, taking the accused’s word for it, the Hindu woman entered into a romantic relationship with the Muslim man. The accused kept taking advantage of the woman's love for him. Later, his true intentions became clear when he started forcing the woman to give up her professed faith and convert to Islam. He also coerced her to perform Nikah with him. After all of this, the accused, when lost interest in the woman, killed her and dumped her body in a canal. This case has been classified as a hate crime where indoctrination and manipulation were used since the Muslim male took advantage of the Hindu woman with the sole aim of alienating her from her professed faith.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
