Muslim man pretends to be Hindu to lure Hindu woman, abandons her after establishing a sexual relationship

Case ID : 0b675b3 | Location : Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 12 July, 2024

Case ID : 0b675b3

Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh, India

12 July, 2024

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Case Summary

In Chhattisgarh's Farasgaon police station area of Kondagaon district, Ishtiaq Qureshi, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, befriended a Hindu girl on social media by posing as Ajay Samarth. After this, he lured her into a relationship and established physical relationship with her by promising marriage. The police have arrested the accused. The Hindu woman reported that Ishtiaq Qureshi, posing as Ajay Samarth on Instagram, deceived her into believing he loved her. After gaining her trust and phone number, Ishtiaq wooed her, promising marriage. In October 2023, he travelled from Uttar Pradesh to Chhattisgarh, where he established physical relationship under the false pretence of marriage. Once he had established a relationship, he abandoned her and disappeared. Upon discovering Ishtiaq's true identity, the victim filed a complaint with the Farasgaon police. An investigation led the police to Kanpur, where they arrested Ishtiaq Qureshi in Naungwa Gautam village. He was brought back to Chhattisgarh, charged, and subsequently jailed.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

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. In this case, the Muslim perpetrator hid his religious identity and trapped the Hindu woman. Further, he physically exploited her on the pretext of marriage. He later abandoned her and disappeared. 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 religious 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.