Hindu man assaulted by Muslim men for being in relationship and seen publicly with a Muslim woman in Ghaziabad

Case ID : 30aa120 | Location : Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 24 August, 2026

Case ID : 30aa120

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

24 August, 2026

Hindu man assaulted by Muslim men for being in relationship and seen publicly with a Muslim woman in Ghaziabad

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Attacked/killed for being associated or suspicion of being associated with Muslim woman

Case Summary

In Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man named Shivam was brutally beaten by a group of Muslim men for being in an interfaith relationship with a Muslim woman. At the time of the incident, he was out with his Muslim girlfriend, who was wearing a burqa and abaya. According to media reports, the incident took place in a park near Gaur Green Society in the Indirapuram area of Ghaziabad. Shivam was present there with the Muslim woman when four Muslim men surrounded him and confronted him over his association with her. The group then physically assaulted Shivam. He was slapped and subjected to filthy verbal abuse, including insults directed at his mother and sister. During the assault, the perpetrators referred to the woman as a Muslim and questioned Shivam about why he was accompanying her. They asked him why he was taking her around and questioned whether there were no Hindu women for him to associate with. The accused then turned towards the Muslim woman and began questioning and intimidating her. They asked her name and demanded to know why she had come there with Shivam. The woman appeared visibly frightened throughout the confrontation. At one point, she told them, “Brother, this will not happen again.” The Muslim group continued to threaten and question her about being in a relationship with a Hindu man. They asked her whether there were no Muslim men and told her that she should speak to her family and get married rather than meeting Shivam in this manner. Objecting to her being with Shivam while dressed in Islamic attire, they also told her to remove what she was wearing. The perpetrators also behaved obscenely towards her and threatened her during the incident. A silver-coloured car was parked near the location where the woman was standing. Someone present at the scene recorded the incident, and a 53-second video subsequently surfaced on social media. The footage showed Shivam being surrounded, abused and assaulted, while the Muslim woman was also confronted, intimidated and abused by the group. The video soon went viral on social media, bringing the incident to wider public attention. After the footage surfaced, the Uttar Pradesh Police took cognisance of the matter on 25th August 2026. Indirapuram Assistant Commissioner of Police Suryabali Maurya confirmed that the viral video was from a park in the Indirapuram area and stated that action had been initiated. The police began efforts to identify and trace the men involved in the assault. Investigators were also examining the number plate of the silver-coloured car visible in the footage as part of the investigation. At the time of writing this report, necessary action against those involved was underway.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category: Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women. The subcategory selected is: Attacked/killed for being associated or suspicion of being associated with Muslim woman. There have been several cases documented of Hindu men/boys being attacked specifically by Muslim groups/mobs for merely being associated or suspicion of being associated or being seen with a Muslim woman in public. In most of such cases, the Hindu man is not in a relationship with the Muslim woman, however, the mob proceeds to threaten and/or assault the Hindu man for merely being associated with the Muslim woman in any capacity. The rise of such crimes stems from a particularly sinister campaign run by several Muslim ideologues and activists. The campaign claims that Hindu men are attempting to ‘lure’ Muslim women into relationships to ensure that Muslim women leave their faith and follow Hinduism. The propaganda has been spearheaded with the help of WhatsApp groups and the extensive use of social media, sans evidence of the same. In many cases, pamphlets were fabricated to lend credence to this campaign. The root of this campaign lies in the fact that several cases of sectarian crimes against Hindu women in relationships with Muslim men have been documented. In such cases, Hindu women have often been forced/pressured to convert to Islam, assaulted, threatened and even murdered owing specifically to their religious identity and their refusal to give up that religious identity to adopt Islam. To delegitimize the suffering of Hindu women when such sectarian crimes are committed against them, the theory of ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ was floated by sections of the Muslim community. As this theory gained traction, Muslim mobs started targeting Hindu men who were seen with Muslim women. In several such cases, the Hindu man was assaulted merely for offering to drop a Muslim woman in his vehicle or being friends. The differentiating factor between such cases and legitimate cases of Hindu women being targeted while in a relationship with Muslim men is that there is no sectarian violence, and force/pressure to convert. The nature of sectarian violence against Hindu women is not about two adults in a consensual relationship, working together, studying together, or even marrying each other where religious considerations are declared. In this category of crimes, it is pertinent to remember that in none of the cases, there is an element of the Hindu man masking his identity or forced religious conversion. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. This case has been added to the Hinduphobia Tracker because the assault on the Hindu victim, Shivam, was directly connected to his religious identity and his interfaith relationship with a Muslim woman. The attack was not a random act of violence or a private disagreement. Four Muslim men surrounded Shivam in a public park, confronted him specifically over his association with the Muslim woman, and then physically assaulted him. Their questions about why he was taking her around and whether there were no Hindu women for him to associate with made it clear that their hostility was directed towards Shivam as a Hindu man who had entered an interfaith relationship. It is important to note that Shivam and the Muslim woman were both adults and were free to make their own decisions regarding their relationship. The woman was with Shivam of her own free will, and there was no conduct on his part that warranted the intervention or violence inflicted upon him. The perpetrators nevertheless took it upon themselves to police Shivam's relationship and punish him for crossing a perceived religious boundary. Their decision to surround and assault him solely because he was a Hindu man accompanying a Muslim woman demonstrated hostility towards his religious identity and his choice to enter a consensual interfaith relationship. The nature of the confrontation further demonstrated that Shivam was being targeted specifically for being Hindu. The perpetrators repeatedly contrasted his Hindu identity with the woman's Muslim identity and questioned why he was associating with her instead of a Hindu woman. This was not merely an objection to Shivam's conduct or a personal dispute with him; the religious identities involved were central to their confrontation. By physically assaulting Shivam after confronting him over this relationship, the perpetrators sought to intimidate and punish him for associating with a Muslim woman despite being Hindu. The incident also reflected a broader pattern in which Hindu men in relationships with Muslim women are treated as religious transgressors and subjected to intimidation or violence. Such hostility is often reinforced by the so-called ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ conspiracy theory, which falsely portrays Hindu men who enter relationships with Muslim women as part of a supposed organised effort to target Muslim women. This narrative vilifies Hindu men and is routinely used to justify policing consensual interfaith relationships and attacking Hindu men involved in them. In Shivam's case, the perpetrators' conduct reflected precisely this form of hostility: rather than respecting his personal choice, they confronted and assaulted him because he, as a Hindu man, was in a relationship with a Muslim woman. The Muslim woman was also intimidated during the confrontation, with the Muslim men questioning her about her relationship with Shivam and telling her to associate with a Muslim man instead. However, the central victimisation relevant to this entry was the physical assault on Shivam. He was singled out, surrounded and beaten because of his Hindu identity and his relationship with a Muslim woman, making the incident a clear manifestation of hostility towards a Hindu man on religious grounds. For this reason, the case has been included in the Hinduphobia Tracker's hate crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on the date when the crime occurred rather than the date when it was reported by the media. However, in the present case, media reports did not specify the exact date on which the crime occurred. Therefore, 25th August 2026, the date on which the police took cognisance of the matter, has been selected as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only. Although both the Hindu man, Shivam, and the Muslim woman were targeted and intimidated during the incident, the Hinduphobia Tracker records victims based on the victimisation relevant to the tracker. Therefore, the victim count has been recorded as one, referring to Shivam, the Hindu man who was physically assaulted in the incident.