Hindu widow targeted by Muslim man posing as Hindu; subjected to sexual exploitation, blackmail and forced religious conversion

Case ID : 30a98d9 | Location : Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 23 July, 2024

Case ID : 30a98d9

Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, India

23 July, 2024

Hindu widow targeted by Muslim man posing as Hindu; subjected to sexual exploitation, blackmail and forced religious conversion

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Case Summary

In Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu widow was deceived, sexually exploited and pressured for conversion by a Muslim man who concealed his religious identity by posing as a Hindu. The accused gained the victim's trust through false promises of marriage, following which he repeatedly sexually exploited her. He also recorded explicit photographs and videos of the victim without her informed consent and later used them to blackmail her with threats of making the material public. According to the victim's complaint, the two came into contact on Instagram around two years ago, in 2024. During this time, the accused, Mohsin, introduced himself as a Hindu man named "Rahul" and gradually developed a relationship with the victim by assuring her that he intended to marry her. After five to six months of communication, the victim discovered that his real name was Mohsin, a resident of Sultanpur village in Hapur who had been working in Saudi Arabia. Despite learning his true identity, the accused continued to reassure her that he would marry her, thereby maintaining her trust. The complaint stated that after returning from Saudi Arabia on 15 June 2026, the accused began visiting the victim's residence regularly. During this period, he established physical relations with her on the false pretext of marriage and secretly recorded explicit photographs and videos. When the victim later insisted that he fulfil his promise of marriage, the accused refused and instead threatened to circulate the intimate material on social media if she continued to pursue the matter. The victim further stated that when she approached the accused's family regarding the marriage, they pressured her to convert to Islam and abandon her children. After she refused, the accused switched off his phone and ceased all communication. Subsequently, the victim submitted a written complaint to the Hapur Nagar Kotwali Police Station, seeking strict legal action against the accused and his relatives. Police stated that an investigation into the matter had been initiated.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker under the primary category: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is: Man pretends to be Hindu and the tertiary category selected is: Name changed. 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 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. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is 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. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both the situations, 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. The deliberate use of a Hindu name cannot be viewed as a simple act of concealment or personal dishonesty. In the Indian social context, a person's name serves as one of the clearest indicators of religious identity. By adopting a Hindu name, the perpetrator constructed an identity that projected religious commonality with the victim and enabled him to access a relationship that may not have been possible through honest disclosure. Such conduct amounts to the calculated misuse of Hindu identity as an instrument of deception, demonstrating that the victim's religion was central to the manner in which she was selected and approached. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. The false promise of marriage further reinforces the religious character of the offence. Marriage is a deeply significant institution in Hindu society, where religious compatibility frequently forms an important consideration in choosing a life partner. A promise of marriage made under a fabricated religious identity is fundamentally different from an ordinary breach of promise because it deprives the victim of the opportunity to exercise informed consent regarding both her relationship and her religious future. The deception therefore did not merely induce an emotional commitment but interfered with her freedom to make decisions consistent with her religious beliefs and personal values. The sexual exploitation that followed cannot be separated from the religious deception that preceded it. Consent obtained after inducing trust through a fabricated religious identity is qualitatively different from consent obtained through an honest relationship. The perpetrator exploited a relationship that existed only because the victim believed she was involved with someone from her own religious community. The offence was therefore facilitated by the manipulation of religious identity, making the victim's Hindu faith an essential element in the commission of the crime rather than an incidental circumstance. The subsequent demand that the victim embrace Islam further reveals the religious objective underlying the earlier deception. Pressure to abandon one's faith strikes at the heart of an individual's freedom of conscience and religious autonomy. In this case, the attempt to secure a relationship through a fabricated Hindu identity was followed by pressure upon the victim to relinquish her own religious identity. This progression demonstrates that religion remained central throughout the course of the abuse, transforming what began as religious deception into an attempt to alter the victim's faith against her wishes. Taken together, the deliberate assumption of a Hindu identity, the use of a Hindu name to gain the victim's trust, the sexual exploitation enabled by that deception, and the subsequent pressure to convert to Islam establish that the offence was directed against the victim not merely as a woman but specifically as a Hindu woman. The case therefore satisfies the parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime and is included in the Hinduphobia Tracker database. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that she came into contact with the accused in 2024. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date, 24 July 2024, as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 24 July 2026, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.