Muslim man pretends to be Hindu and lures Hindu woman, threatens her when his identity was revealed

Case ID : 72574e4 | Location : Surat, Gujarat, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 30 June, 2022

Case ID : 72574e4

Surat, Gujarat, India

30 June, 2022

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Case Summary

Police arrested a man named Wasim Akram Waheed for rape and breach of trust in Surat. He trapped a 24-year-old leading varsity topper in a relationship by faking a Hindu name. He also established sexual relations with her by promising marriage. The perpetrator, a resident of Rajput Faliya in Vesu area ran a business named Sunrise event. The Hindu victim had recently begun event management services in addition to her academics. She met Wasim, who lied about his identity and offered her a business partnership. With the formation of a partnership, they eventually began dating. Reportedly, Wasim had told his colleagues and clients his name was Vasu Gwaladiya. She learned of his true identity by finding his Aadhar card with his real name. Upon confrontation, he gave her a death threat. She broke off her partnership and relationship and filed a police complaint.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

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. In this case, a non-Hindu man concealed his religious identity and pretended to be a Hindu to lure a Hindu woman and threatened her when his real religious identity was revealed. Since the religious motive of the crime is evident from the fact that the man pretended to be a Hindu to trap a Hindu woman, this case has been documented as a hate crime.