Hindu woman deceived into relationship by Muslim man posing as Hindu; assaulted and killed during altercation

Case ID : 30aafa9 | Location : North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 3 October, 2026

Case ID : 30aafa9

North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India

3 October, 2026

Hindu woman deceived into relationship by Muslim man posing as Hindu; assaulted and killed during altercation

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Case Summary

24-year-old Hindu woman, Isha Sau, a Wipro employee from Baranagar in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, died after falling from a five-storey residential building during an altercation. Her family stated that she had been in a relationship with a Muslim man named Adil Waqar, who had introduced himself as a Hindu and concealed his religious identity. According to the family, Isha had become involved with the Muslim man, believing that he belonged to the same faith, and tensions arose after questions emerged about his identity. The incident occurred on 4 October 2026, at the family’s residence on Nabin Chandra Das Road in Baranagar, when the Muslim man arrived with three or four associates between 3.30 am and 4 am. Isha’s mother objected to their entry into the house and was assaulted and abused when she attempted to stop them. According to the family’s account, the accused and his associates subsequently confronted Isha and took her towards the rooftop, where a heated altercation took place shortly before she fell from the building. Residents rushed to the spot after hearing a loud thud and found Isha critically injured in a pool of blood. Subsequently, the perpetrators fled the scene, leaving their motorcycles behind. Police from Baranagar Police Station reached the location and took Isha to Sagar Dutta Medical College and Hospital, where doctors declared her dead. Her family demanded a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death, including whether she had been subjected to coercion or intimidation before the incident. The police investigated whether her death resulted from suicide, an accident or criminal actions. Witness statements, mobile phone records, CCTV footage and forensic evidence were expected to help establish the sequence of events. At the time of the report, the investigation was ongoing, and the circumstances surrounding Isha’s death had not been conclusively established.

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. 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 case was added to the tracker because of the identity-based deception targeting a Hindu woman in an intimate relationship. According to the victim’s family, the man concealed his Muslim identity by presenting himself as a Hindu, leading Isha Sau to believe that he belonged to the same faith. Therefore, the accused 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. Furthermore, the family’s account also places the deception within a wider context of confrontation and intimidation. The assault on Isha’s mother and the confrontation with Isha before her death formed part of the sequence of events following the concealment of the accused's religious identity. The family’s account demonstrated that the conflict unfolded in the context of a relationship in which Isha had been deceived about her partner’s faith. The Hinduphobia Tracker follows strict parameters when classifying and documenting hate crimes. In this case, the victim’s death meant that her account could not be obtained directly, so the statements provided by her family regarding the concealment of religious identity and the events preceding her death were given precedence in the assessment. The family’s account formed the basis for including the case in the Tracker, as it indicated that Isha’s Hindu identity have been exploited through religious deception in the relationship. Therefore, this case was added to the hate crime database.