Hindu Dalit woman deceived through false Hindu identity by Muslim man, caste abused and sexually exploited under the pretence of marriage
Surat, Gujarat, India 
15 May, 2026
Case Summary
A Hindu Dalit woman lawyer in Surat, Gujarat, was deceived into a relationship by a Muslim man who concealed his religious identity and presented himself as a Hindu man named Rohan. Over time, the Hindu woman was drawn into an intimate relationship after being made to believe that the perpetrator shared her faith, respected Hindu traditions, and intended to marry her. The deception extended into her professional environment, where he introduced himself to colleagues and others using the false Hindu identity. The Hindu victim later discovered that the man who had gained her trust through this fabricated identity was already married to another Muslim woman. On 16th May 2026, details of the case emerged from the Chowk Bazaar area of Surat, Gujarat, after the Hindu Dalit woman filed a complaint against Muslim perpetrator Rahim Razak Sheikh. The Hindu woman, who worked as a lawyer, came into contact with Rahim through professional interactions. From the beginning, the Muslim perpetrator concealed his real identity and introduced himself to her as “Rohan”. He repeatedly told the Hindu victim that he deeply respected Hinduism and projected himself as someone emotionally attached to Hindu beliefs and customs. To strengthen this false image, he also used the Hindu name “Rohan” in front of colleagues and other individuals in the office environment so that his real religious identity would not come under suspicion. As the interaction between the two developed, the Muslim perpetrator systematically embedded himself into the religious and cultural practices of the Hindu woman. He participated in Ganapati Puja and Satyanarayan worship ceremonies with her and presented himself as a practising Hindu man. Even on his birthday, a photograph of him wearing a saffron/yellow turban and traditional attire commonly associated with Hindu ceremonial presentation was printed on the cake. During these interactions, he attempted to convince the Hindu victim that he genuinely respected and followed Hindu traditions. The Hindu woman gradually trusted him and entered into a romantic relationship believing that she was involved with a Hindu man who intended to marry her. The relationship later intensified after the Muslim perpetrator performed symbolic Hindu marital rituals inside the office itself. Rahim applied vermilion on the Hindu woman’s forehead and placed a mangalsutra around her neck in order to create the impression of a Hindu marital bond. He assured the Hindu victim that a formal marriage ceremony would take place later with full celebrations. Based on these repeated assurances and the religious symbolism used by the perpetrator, the Hindu Dalit woman believed that she had entered into a committed marital relationship with him. During this period, the Muslim perpetrator repeatedly established physical relations with the Hindu victim on the promise of marriage. The Hindu woman later asked Rahim to formally solemnise the marriage. At this stage, the behaviour of the Muslim perpetrator changed significantly. He started avoiding discussions regarding marriage and became hostile towards the Hindu victim whenever she insisted on fulfilling the promises he had made to her. The Hindu woman subsequently discovered that Rahim had already married another Muslim woman while continuing his relationship with her and concealing this fact throughout the duration of their involvement. After the Hindu Dalit woman confronted him regarding the deception and false assurances, the Muslim perpetrator subjected her to physical violence and verbal abuse. He repeatedly assaulted the Hindu victim and made derogatory remarks regarding her caste identity. The Hindu woman was humiliated and abused on the basis of her Dalit identity after she objected to the deception, physical exploitation, and concealment of his existing marriage. As the abuse escalated, the Hindu woman approached the authorities and submitted a formal complaint at Chowk Bazaar police station in Surat. Following the complaint, police initiated legal proceedings against Muslim perpetrator Rahim Razak Sheikh under charges related to rape, cheating, and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act. The investigation into the matter was assigned to Assistant Commissioner of Police Mukesh Upadhyay of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes cell due to the seriousness of the allegations. Police stated that further inquiry into the full sequence of events, the deception used by the perpetrator, and the abuse faced by the Hindu Dalit woman was ongoing.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is - Man pretends to be Hindu. Under this, the tertiary categories selected are - Name changed, and Wears symbols of Hinduism. 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 other sub-category selected for this case is - Brainwashed and/ or groomed. Under this, the tertiary categories selected are - Rape and sexual assault/harassment, and Victim says she was brainwashed/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 has been added to the tracker because a Muslim man deliberately concealed his religious identity, adopted Hindu religious markers, emotionally groomed a Hindu Dalit woman, and sexually exploited her through sustained deception rooted in false religious presentation and fabricated marital commitment. The sequence of actions carried out by Muslim perpetrator Rahim Razak Sheikh demonstrated a calculated effort to specifically target a Hindu woman by presenting himself as a practising Hindu man named “Rohan”. The deception was not incidental or superficial. It formed the foundation through which trust, emotional dependence, sexual access, and long term control over the Hindu victim were established. The other category selected is- Hate speech against Hindus. Under this, the subcategory selected is- Violent threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. The case carries clear religious markers because the Muslim perpetrator deliberately concealed his identity and posed as a Hindu man in order to gain the trust of the Hindu Dalit woman. He introduced himself as “Rohan”, participated in Ganapati Puja and Satyanarayan worship, wore Hindu attire and symbols, and projected himself as someone deeply connected to Hindu beliefs and customs. These acts were not casual social adjustments but a sustained attempt to create religious familiarity and emotional trust. The deception was rooted in the perpetrator’s understanding that shared religion carries significant importance in relationships and marriage within many Hindu families. By presenting himself as a practising Hindu, he created the impression that he belonged to the same religious and cultural background as the victim. Hindu rituals, symbols, vermilion, mangalsutra, temple worship, and devotional practices hold deep spiritual and emotional significance within Hindu society. The perpetrator consciously used these sacred customs because he understood that the Hindu woman was more likely to trust, emotionally invest in, and agree to a relationship with someone she believed shared her faith and values. This reflected a deliberate disregard for her religious beliefs and her right to make an informed choice based on the truth. The path adopted by the perpetrator further demonstrates that the objective was not a genuine relationship based on honesty and consent, but a prolonged process of deception and exploitation centred around religious impersonation. He not only concealed his Muslim identity but also hid his existing marriage while continuing to assure the victim of marriage through Hindu rituals and symbols associated with sacred marital commitment. The physical relationship was therefore secured through false promises, fabricated religious compatibility, and deliberate manipulation of Hindu marital traditions. Another important religious marker was the systematic use of Hindu identity itself as a tool of grooming and control. The perpetrator maintained the fabricated Hindu persona across social and professional settings, reinforcing the deception over a long period. This was done to psychologically disarm the victim, isolate suspicion, and maintain emotional and physical access to her through a false sense of shared faith and trust. The caste-based abuse directed at the Hindu Dalit woman further strengthened the religiously motivated nature of the targeting. After the victim discovered the deception and confronted the perpetrator, he used caste slurs and abusive language targeting her Dalit identity. While the abuse was directed at her caste identity specifically, caste itself exists within the broader framework of Hindu social identity and community belonging. In such cases, the caste abuse cannot be cleanly separated from the victim’s Hindu identity because the perpetrator had already targeted her through sustained religious impersonation, manipulation of Hindu customs, and exploitation of her Hindu faith. The caste slurs, therefore, formed part of the wider pattern of hostility and domination directed at the victim as a Hindu Dalit woman. The use of caste-based humiliation after years of religious deception showed contempt not only towards the victim personally, but also towards the religious and social identity she represented. This case also fits into a wider documented pattern in which Hindu women are targeted through religious impersonation, false Hindu identities, emotional grooming, and subsequent exploitation after trust and dependency have been established. The recurrence of similar methods across multiple cases strengthens the inference that the deception was not incidental but part of a recognisable pattern of religiously motivated targeting. Taken together, the false Hindu identity, misuse of Hindu rituals and symbols, concealment of religion and marital status, manipulation through Hindu marriage customs, caste-based abuse, and exploitation after the victim discovered the truth demonstrate a sustained pattern of religiously motivated targeting directed at the victim because she was Hindu. The case, therefore, carried clear markers of religious deception, exploitation, identity-based abuse, and hostility towards the Hindu faith and beliefs. Disclaimer: The exact date on which the initial contact between the Hindu Dalit woman and the Muslim perpetrator first began was not specified in the available sources. The reports only confirmed the disclosure of the relationship, deception, and abuse after the Hindu woman approached the police and filed a complaint. Therefore, 16th May 2026, the publication date of the earliest available report, has been used as the indicative incident date in the tracker. This date was recorded solely for archival and documentation purposes only.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
