Hindu woman deceived into marriage by Muslim man posing as Hindu; infant from Hindu family kidnapped

Case ID : 30a9d27 | Location : Maner, Bihar, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 9 August, 2026

Case ID : 30a9d27

Maner, Bihar, India

9 August, 2026

Hindu woman deceived into marriage by Muslim man posing as Hindu; infant from Hindu family kidnapped

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Maner, Patna district of Bihar, a Muslim man who concealed his religious identity under the Hindu name "Vishal" and married a Hindu woman by posing as a Hindu kidnapped an eight-month-old infant from a Hindu family after luring the child away with the promise of sweets. The accused had been living in the area under his false Hindu identity and had earned the trust of local residents before abducting the child. The incident came to light after the family reported the child's disappearance to the police, following which an investigation was launched. According to reports, the accused had been residing in Prem Tola under the name "Vishal". During the investigation, it emerged that "Vishal" was a false identity and that he was a Muslim man who had deceived a Hindu woman into marrying him by concealing his religious identity. Police also began gathering information regarding his background and the different identities under which he had reportedly been living. The victim's family had recently shifted to a rented house in Tiwari Tola, near the residence of former MLA Shrikant Nirala. Bhola Sao, a resident of Barka village in Bhojpur district, was living there with his wife Aarti. Bhola is the son-in-law of Ram Pravesh Sah, a resident of Rambad, Maner. Before moving to Tiwari Tola four days earlier, the family had been living in another rented house near Devi Sthan, where the accused occupied the neighbouring room. During this period, he developed a friendly relationship with the family and gained their confidence. On the morning of 10 August 2026, the accused visited the family's residence and began playing with the couple's eight-month-old infant. He told the family that he would take the child to buy sweets. He also took along an eight-year-old neighbourhood boy. The accused first went to a sweet shop near the Maner Police Station, where he bought sweets for the older child. He then took the infant away separately, telling the older boy that he was going to buy clothes for the baby. After leaving with the child, the accused did not return. When the family realised that both the accused and the infant were missing, they immediately began searching for them. However, the accused's mobile phone was found switched off. After failing to trace either the child or the accused, the family approached the Maner Police Station and informed the police about the incident. Police subsequently launched a search operation and began examining CCTV footage from the surrounding areas to trace the accused and recover the kidnapped infant. During the course of the investigation, it also came to light that the accused had been living in the locality under a false Hindu identity and had earlier deceived a Hindu woman into marriage by posing as a Hindu. Reports further stated that the accused's wife was lodged in jail in connection with another case. However, this information had not been officially confirmed by the police at the time of reporting. At the time of writing this report, the eight-month-old infant remained untraced. Police continued their investigation to locate the accused and recover the child.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category for this case is: Crime 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 second category selected is: Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory for this case is: Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted of shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and the tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. That's an important point, but it should be framed as an inference from the sequence of conduct rather than as an assertion about his internal intent. Here's a revised HHT-style explanation that incorporates it naturally: The most significant religious marker in this incident is the accused's deliberate concealment of his Muslim identity by assuming the Hindu name "Vishal." This was not a casual misrepresentation but the very foundation on which he built trust with Hindu families. By presenting himself as a Hindu, he deceived a Hindu woman into marrying him and continued to live in the locality under the same false identity. Had religion been irrelevant, there would have been no need to conceal his faith or adopt a Hindu identity. The deception itself demonstrates that the accused considered his true religious identity an obstacle and deliberately removed that obstacle through fraud. Concealing one's religion to secure the trust and consent of a person who may otherwise have refused the relationship constitutes religious deception and makes religion central to the offence. The significance of the false identity extended far beyond the marriage. Having successfully established himself in the locality as a Hindu, the accused gained the confidence of another Hindu family, who regarded him as a trusted neighbour. It was this trust, built upon a fabricated Hindu identity, that enabled him to approach the family's eight-month-old child without arousing suspicion. The kidnapping cannot, therefore, be viewed independently of the earlier deception. The very opportunity to lure the infant away arose because the accused had first embedded himself within the Hindu community by concealing his religious identity. The sequence of events is also significant. The repeated use of a fabricated Hindu identity to deceive a Hindu woman into marriage and subsequently gain the confidence of another Hindu family before allegedly abducting their infant reveals a consistent pattern of targeting Hindus through religious deception. The victims in both instances were not chosen at random but belonged to the same religious community, and the accused's continued assumption of a Hindu identity was the means by which their trust was secured. This conduct reflects hostility towards the Hindu community and demonstrates that the deception was directed specifically at Hindus rather than being an isolated act of impersonation. For these reasons, the incident warrants inclusion in the Hinduphobia Tracker.