Hindu widow deceived, raped and defrauded by Muslim man posing as a Hindu in Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : 323458c | Location : Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 12 October, 2017

Case ID : 323458c

Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India

12 October, 2017

Hindu widow deceived, raped and defrauded by Muslim man posing as a Hindu in Uttar Pradesh

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Marries as per Hindu rituals

Forced conversion after marriage

Case Summary

A Muslim man named Najim Khan raped a Hindu widow after hiding his identity and introducing himself as “Pappu.” He also defrauded her of several lakh rupees and attempted to convert her religion. He was arrested in Shahbad, Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, The woman, a resident of Firozabad, stated that Najim came to her house in 2017, pretending to be Hindu, and rented a room. In January 2018, he forcibly raped her and then deceived her with false promises of marriage. Trusting him, the widow sold her house in Firozabad and moved with him to Shahbad, where he later forged marriage papers at Arya Mandir using a fake identity. After the fake marriage, Najim began assaulting her and stole money from her bank account after taking her ATM card. He eventually forced her to convert to Islam as well. Investigations revealed that Najim was already married and living a double life, with his first wife residing in Rudrapur. The woman named five accomplices—Ehsan Khan, Imran Khan, Sami, Salman Syed, and Bablu Ali—who assisted Najim in the conspiracy. Police arrested the main accused, Najim Khan, and sent him to jail, while the other five remain absconding. The case was registered under charges of rape, fraud, and religious conversion.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory under this is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category under this is: Name Changed and married as per Hindu rituals. 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. Another subcategory under this is: Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to any Abrahamic faith, like Islam, begins after marriage. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert her religion after marriage. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man, pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. This case has been added to the Hinduphobia Tracker because it represents a deliberate and religiously motivated act of deception, exploitation, and violence against a Hindu woman by a Muslim man who concealed his religious identity with the explicit intent to lure, sexually exploit, defraud, and eventually attempt her religious conversion. The accused, Najim Khan, masqueraded as a Hindu under the false name “Pappu” to gain the victim’s trust and access her personal space. His calculated deception was not a random act of fraud but part of a recognisable pattern in which non-Hindu men assume Hindu identities to entrap Hindu women emotionally, financially, and sexually. The concealment of religious identity is central to this pattern, as it allows the perpetrator to cross the boundary of religious trust that would otherwise prevent such intimacy. Once emotional and social dependency is established, the perpetrator often manipulates or coerces the woman toward conversion, invoking religious dominance under the guise of a relationship or marriage. Najim’s case aligns closely with this modus operandi. He introduced himself as “Pappu” and used the Hindu name as a disguise to secure accommodation and proximity to the victim. His first act of violence, the rape in January 2018, was followed by a sustained pattern of deceit, coercion, and exploitation. The promise of marriage served as a mechanism to normalise the relationship and erode the victim’s resistance. The subsequent fake marriage at Arya Mandir using forged papers and the financial fraud that followed illustrate how the perpetrator’s deception extended into both social and economic exploitation. These steps cumulatively demonstrate a calculated attempt to dominate the victim not just physically, but psychologically and socially, elements commonly observed in religiously motivated gendered crimes against Hindu women. The religious motive becomes clearer through the manipulation of identity and the use of marriage as a pretext for conversion. Najim’s effort to legitimise the relationship under Hindu religious institutions (such as Arya Mandir) was not to integrate but to deceive, using Hindu forms and symbols as tools of control. Once his deception was complete, he attempted to convert the woman, an act consistent with the ideological and behavioural patterns seen in predatory conversion-linked sexual crimes. Moreover, the case reflects a structural pattern where the targeting of Hindu women serves both a religious and social purpose, to undermine Hindu familial and religious integrity while asserting dominance through exploitation and deceit. The involvement of multiple accomplices, all from the same community, further indicates collective complicity rather than isolated misconduct, suggesting the presence of communal coordination or at least ideological alignment behind such acts. The religious nature of this hate crime, therefore, lies not only in the explicit attempt to convert the victim but also in the underlying animosity and superiority complex driving the perpetrator’s actions. The abuse of religious trust, the falsification of Hindu identity, and the manipulation of Hindu institutions for deceit mark this as a targeted act against a Hindu woman, one that seeks to erode both her autonomy and her religious integrity. In conclusion, this case is not a simple instance of sexual or financial crime; it is a deeply structured form of religiously motivated exploitation. By posing as a Hindu, the perpetrator weaponised religious deception to breach the victim’s faith-based boundaries, subjecting her to rape, economic fraud, and coercive manipulation. The attack on her body and belief system constitutes a direct violation motivated by religious malice and dominance. This is why it qualifies as a hate crime against Hindus and is recorded in the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: Media reports indicate that the victim’s ordeal began when she met the accused in 2017, though no specific date or month has been mentioned. For documentation purposes, we have used an indicative date—October 13, 2017—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident surfaced on October 13, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the case based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported. Disclaimer: The number of perpetrators in this case has been recorded as six, based on the fact that the police registered the case against six individuals. Since only one of the accused has been arrested and the remaining are absconding, the status of the case has been marked as sub judice pending further legal proceedings.