Hindu woman lured away and sexually exploited by Muslim man posing as Hindu and wearing kalava

Case ID : 30ab59d | Location : Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 2 November, 2026

Case ID : 30ab59d

Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

2 November, 2026

Hindu woman lured away and sexually exploited by Muslim man posing as Hindu and wearing kalava

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Wears symbols of Hinduism

Case Summary

In Powayan village of Shahjahanpur district, Uttar Pradesh, a 20-year-old Hindu woman was lured and abducted by a Muslim man named Afzal, who had deceived her by posing as a Hindu. According to reports, the accused had lured her into a relationship by concealing his religious identity and sexually exploited her after taking her to different places, including Delhi and Panipat. The victim's mother, who belonged to the Scheduled Caste community, filed a named complaint with the police. On 3 November 2026, the victim left her home, telling her family that she was going to the bank. However, she did not return. Her family subsequently learnt that Afzal had taken her away. She had also taken jewellery and Rs 5,000 in cash from her home. On Friday, 13 November 2026, acting on a tip-off from an informant, the police located the woman near Mohammadi Mod in Powayan and brought her to the police station. During questioning, she told the police that Afzal had repeatedly worn kalava (sacred thread) and represented himself as a Hindu to deceive her. He had used this false Hindu identity to gain her trust and lure her into a relationship. He subsequently took her to different places, including Delhi and Panipat, where he sexually exploited her. The woman further stated that she discovered Afzal's actual religious identity when she checked his Aadhaar card and found that he was Muslim. Following this discovery, she somehow managed to escape from him and make her way back to Powayan. The police subsequently added charges of rape and other relevant offences to the case. According to Circle Officer Praveen Malik, the woman was to undergo a medical examination, and her statement was to be recorded before a court. Further legal action was to be taken based on the findings of these procedures.

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: Wears symbols of Hinduism. 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. The accused’s use of a kalava (sacred Hindu thread) as part of the deception carried a distinct religious dimension. A kalava is a sacred thread traditionally tied during Hindu religious rituals and ceremonies as a symbol of divine blessings, faith, protection and commitment to Dharma. It holds deep religious and cultural significance for Hindus and is regarded as a sacred emblem of Hindu faith and devotion. In this case, the accused wore a kalava on his wrist while concealing his Muslim identity and presenting himself as a Hindu in order to gain the Hindu woman’s trust and create a false impression that he shared her religious identity. The use of the kalava was therefore not incidental to the deception but served to reinforce the Hindu identity he had falsely adopted before the victim. By using a kalava, a sacred Hindu religious symbol, merely to deceive and trap a Hindu woman into a relationship, the accused exploited an object of religious faith for personal purposes and demonstrated deep-seated disrespect for its sanctity and the religious sentiments associated with it. Such deliberate misuse of a revered Hindu symbol to facilitate deception and conceal his actual religious identity amounted to religiously driven hostility and further underscored the religious dimension of the offence. 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. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. The earliest date mentioned is 3 November 2026, when the victim was lured away by the accused. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as 3 November 2026, though the media reported the incident on 14 November 2026.