Sahil Khan pretends to be Raju Singh, exploits several Hindu women, rapes them on the pretext of teaching "tantra-mantra"

Case ID : 34d6d96 | Location : Kawardha, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 7 October, 2024

Case ID : 34d6d96

Kawardha, Chhattisgarh, India

7 October, 2024

Sahil Khan pretends to be Raju Singh, exploits several Hindu women, rapes them on the pretext of teaching "tantra-mantra"

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Pattern of targeting Hindu women

Case Summary

In Kotwali, Kawardha district, Chhattisgarh, Sahil Khan was arrested for posing as a Hindu under the fake identity of "Raju Singh" and exploiting multiple Hindu women on the pretext of teaching witchcraft (tantra-mantra). He also extorted ₹3 lakh from a victim, falsely promising to help get her husband out of jail. Sahil created a fake Aadhaar card under his alias and manipulated more than half a dozen women into physical relationships by gaining their trust through his false identity. The case came to light when one of the victims lodged a police complaint, revealing that she had met Sahil six months prior at a tea shop in Amlidih village. He then lured her into a relationship, claiming to teach her tantra-mantras, and later abused her mentally and physically. Police investigations uncovered that Sahil had been involved in these fraudulent activities for a long time, deceiving multiple young women and cheating people out of large sums of money. Kawardha Police Station in-charge, Lalji Sinha, confirmed that Sahil Khan has been charged under various sections, including love jihad, rape and fraud.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added as a religiously motivated crime under the prime category- Hate crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes- of the tracker. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. Further, two tertiary categories, namely, ''Name changed' and 'Pattern of targeting Hindu women' have also been selected under the aforementioned sub-category. 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 religious motive of the crime is evident from the fact that the Muslim perpetrator hid his true identity to trap the Hindu victim. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. Further, the religious angle of the crime became more apparent by the fact that the Muslim man exploited multiple Hindu women under his alias. This pattern of regularly targeting Hindu women by the accused exemplifies a deliberate exploitation based on religious identity, further illustrating the nature of the crime as one driven by animosity toward Hindu individuals. By assuming a false identity to deceive and exploit Hindu women specifically, the accused's actions point to a recurring and targeted pattern that aligns with religiously motivated hate crime criteria and because of these reasons, this case has been added to the tracker.