Hindu woman deceived into relationship by Muslim spy posing as Hindu man in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.

Case ID : 30a75c9 | Location : Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 23 March, 2026

Case ID : 30a75c9

Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, India

23 March, 2026

Hindu woman deceived into relationship by Muslim spy posing as Hindu man in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Pattern of targeting Hindu women

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Case Summary

In Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim man identified as Suhel, also known as Suhail Malik, posed as a Hindu using the alias “Romeo” and established a relationship with a Hindu girl. To conceal his identity, he wore a sacred thread, Rudraksha beads, and applied a tilak, presenting himself as a Hindu while interacting with her. He maintained this false identity during their interactions, including meeting her in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, where she believed him to be a Hindu. The case came to light during an investigation into a Pakistan-linked espionage network, in which Suhel was found to be one of the accused. Authorities have arrested multiple individuals connected to this network, which was involved in sharing sensitive information such as troop movements, locations, and infrastructure details with handlers based in Pakistan. Investigations revealed that several members of the network used false Hindu identities to avoid suspicion. Suhel, along with others, adopted Hindu names and appearances while operating in different parts of the country. As part of their activities, members of the group travelled to various locations, including Haridwar, Rishikesh, and Rajasthan, where they visited temples such as Mansa Devi, Neelkanth Mahadev, and Khatu Shyam temple. During these visits, they participated in religious activities such as taking a dip in the Ganga and attending Ganga Aarti, while also carrying out reconnaissance of nearby areas, including sensitive locations such as railway stations and an army camp. Further investigation indicated that the network used social media, encrypted applications, and surveillance equipment, including CCTV cameras, to collect and transmit information. The accused were reportedly in contact with handlers based in Pakistan and received instructions and payments through various channels. Police have seized electronic devices and are continuing their investigation into the activities, links, and operations of the network.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category for the case is "Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes". The sub-category for this case is "Man pretends to be Hindu". The tertiary categories for this case are "Name changed" and "Pattern of targetting Hindus". 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. Another sub-category for this case is "Brainwashed and/or groomed". In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. This case bears clear markers of a religiously motivated hate crime as it involves the deliberate concealment of religious identity by Suhel, who posed as a Hindu to establish a relationship with a Hindu girl. The adoption of a Hindu name, along with visible religious symbols such as a sacred thread, Rudraksha beads, and tilak, was not incidental but a calculated act of deception aimed at gaining trust by exploiting shared religious identity. A key marker in this case is that the relationship was initiated and sustained under a false identity. This indicates that the accused was aware that his real identity could pose a barrier and therefore chose to misrepresent himself to bypass it. Such concealment transforms the interaction from a personal relationship into one rooted in deception targeted specifically at a Hindu individual. The act of impersonating a Hindu and using religious symbols to build credibility reflects a pattern where identity is strategically manipulated to target members of a particular religious community. The use of these symbols is significant, as they are markers of trust and belonging within the Hindu community, and their misuse indicates an intent to exploit that trust. The fact that this conduct occurred alongside involvement in a larger organised network further reinforces the pattern of deliberate identity-based concealment. Investigations revealed that multiple individuals within the network adopted Hindu identities to avoid suspicion and operate more freely. This suggests that such deception was not an isolated act but part of a broader method employed by the group. Targeting through identity concealment, particularly in the context of personal relationships, creates conditions where the victim’s consent is shaped by misinformation. The Hindu girl entered into the relationship believing the accused to be a member of her own community, which fundamentally alters the nature of her consent and highlights the exploitative nature of the interaction. Taken together, the deliberate misrepresentation of religious identity, the use of Hindu symbols to establish trust, and the targeting of a Hindu individual through deception establish that the act was rooted in religious identity-based targeting rather than a neutral interpersonal relationship. It is therefore classified as a religiously motivated hate crime and has been documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when a crime occurred, or a victim's ordeal began, rather than when the media reported it. In this case, the exact date on which Suhail Malik first made contact with the Hindu woman in Baddi and began grooming her under the false Hindu name Romeo is not confirmed in the sources. The article was published on March 24, 2026. Therefore, March 24, 2026, has been chosen as the indicative incident date, as it is the earliest confirmed and documented date cited in the sources. It is important to note that the relationship and grooming had been ongoing for an extended period prior to this date, as the emotional investment in the relationship was sufficiently deep for Suhail Malik to abandon a planned reconnaissance mission to attend his Hindu girlfriend's birthday before his arrest. The true start date of the Hindu woman's ordeal, therefore, predates March 24, 2026, by an unconfirmed period. This was recorded for documentation purposes only.