Hindu woman befriended and lured into relationship by Muslim man using fake Hindu identity

Case ID : 30aab02 | Location : Delhi, Delhi, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 3 October, 2020

Case ID : 30aab02

Delhi, Delhi, India

3 October, 2020

Hindu woman befriended and lured into relationship by Muslim man using fake Hindu identity

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Case Summary

In Bhargama, Araria district, Bihar, a Hindu woman was befriended by a Muslim man, Rabban, who used the name “Sonu” and presented himself as Hindu, leading her into a relationship under a concealed religious identity. After the Muslim man's real identity was revealed, she wanted to leave but was coerced to stay by members of his family. The Hindu woman was 22 years old, originally from Banka district, and was living in Delhi with her parents. Her parents sold vegetables from a handcart, while she worked at a button-making factory. During her time in Delhi, she met the man, who was from Chandi Ghasi village, Dhaneshwari Panchayat, Bhargama block, Araria district. The two then entered a relationship that lasted about six years. During the relationship, the man took around ₹7 lakh from her family. Around eight days before the police complaint, the man took the woman to his home in Chandi Ghasi Tola, Dhaneshwari Panchayat, Bhargama. There, she discovered that his real name was Rabban and that he was Muslim. After learning his identity, she refused to proceed with the proposed marriage and tried to leave, but his family stopped her. The woman then used her mobile phone to send her location to her parents and informed them about the situation. After receiving the information, her mother and brother, accompanied by other relatives, travelled to Araria. About a week later, they took the woman back with them. After returning, the woman approached Bhargama Police Station and submitted an application against the man. She also wanted to meet the Forbesganj Deputy Superintendent of Police and the Superintendent of Police. Rajesh Kumar, the Bhargama Station House Officer, confirmed that the police had received the woman's application. He said police were investigating the matter and would question both sides, with further action to be taken based on the facts established during the investigation.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is: Man pretends to be Hindu. 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. This case exhibits a clear religiously motivated targeting because the Muslim man deliberately concealed his identity and adopted the Hindu name “Sonu” while presenting himself as Hindu to build trust with a Hindu woman. The deception was central to how the relationship was established and maintained. By creating the impression of a shared religious identity, he gained her confidence before revealing his actual identity as Rabban. The concealment of Muslim identity and adoption of the Hindu name “Sonu” made the woman’s religious identity a central part of the deception. The man had not simply withheld a personal detail; he presented himself as belonging to the same religious community as the woman. This created a false basis of familiarity and shared identity. For the Hindu woman, the person with whom she formed a relationship appeared to be Hindu, while his actual religious identity remained concealed. The religious element therefore operated directly through the manipulation of her understanding of who she was dealing with. The religious dimension lay in exploiting her trust in a purportedly shared Hindu identity while privately maintaining a different religious identity. More significantly, the adoption of a Hindu identity served as the means through which the man established familiarity and developed the relationship. The significance of the deception was that the Hindu identity was not merely incidental to his introduction; it formed part of the identity through which he presented himself to her. By appearing to share her religious background, he created an impression of religious compatibility and made it easier to establish personal trust. The conduct therefore affected the woman specifically in her capacity as a Hindu, because the identity presented to her was one she understood to be Hindu. Against this backdrop, after the woman discovered that the person she knew as “Sonu” was Rabban and that he was Muslim, the religious deception became directly connected with her decision to leave. She refused to proceed with the proposed marriage and attempted to leave after learning his actual identity, but members of his family coerced her to stay. This made the revelation of religious identity a decisive point in the sequence of events: she had entered the relationship believing that she was dealing with a Hindu man, discovered that this understanding was false, rejected the proposed marriage, and then faced resistance when she tried to leave. This represented an infringement upon her ability to make a personal and matrimonial decision after learning the religious identity that had previously been concealed from her. Collectively, these actions placed the woman’s Hindu identity at the centre of the harm: a false Hindu identity was used to gain her trust, the deception operated through a deliberately concealed religious identity, and resistance followed when she rejected the relationship after discovering the truth. Taken together, the conduct undermined her ability to make an informed decision about a relationship and proposed marriage while exploiting the religious identity she had understood the man to share. Accordingly, this case has been documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker's Hate Crime Database as an instance of religiously motivated hostility directed against Hinduism and the religious identity of the Hindu community. Disclaimer: The exact date when the Hindu woman and the Muslim perpetrator first came into contact was not specified in the available sources. However, the reports stated that their relationship had continued for approximately six years. The tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurred, not when it was reported or published. In this case, 4th October 2020 has been used as the indicative incident date, derived by counting back six years from the complaint date of 4th October 2026. This date has been recorded for documentation purposes only.