Hindu woman lured and befriended by Muslim man feigning Hindu identity in Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Case ID : 30aafa4 | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 18 October, 2026

Case ID : 30aafa4

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

18 October, 2026

Hindu woman lured and befriended by Muslim man feigning Hindu identity in Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Case Summary

A Hindu woman was lured and befriended through an online app by a Muslim man named Anas Khan, who introduced himself as a Hindu man named Rohit, concealing his Muslim identity. The Hindu woman lived with her sister in the Gauri Nagar area of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, where she was pursuing a beauty parlour course. During this time, the accused, Anas Khan, a resident of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, befriended her by posing as a Hindu man. On 19 October 2026, the accused travelled to Indore to meet her. According to Bajrang Dal activists, the two were spotted near a hotel while looking for accommodation. After receiving information about the matter, Bajrang Dal activists questioned them and took them to the police station. The victim told the activists that Khan had initially presented himself as a Hindu and that she learnt his actual religious identity during their conversation. The police took preventive action against Khan under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and detained him. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajesh Dandotiya stated that the woman had not filed a formal complaint and that the police were investigating the matter.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The first 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 has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was deceived and befriended by a Muslim man, who pretended to be Hindu. The perpetrator deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. 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. In such instances, identity concealment is not just a deceptive tactic for personal reasons but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. The perpetrator was aware that the victim, being Hindu, would likely refuse his advances if she knew his real identity, and he circumvented this by lying, which directly pointed to a religiously driven intent. This deception reflected a larger pattern where Hindu women are specifically singled out using false identities by Muslim men, often with coercion or conversion in mind. Such targeted victimisation based on religion not only demonstrated a fundamental disregard for Hinduism but also exposed a deeper animosity toward Hindus and their beliefs. Therefore, since this case meets the parameters of a religiously driven crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.