Minor Dalit Hindu girl lured into a relationship and assaulted by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Case ID : 90a06ec | Location : Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 2 May, 2024

Case ID : 90a06ec

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

2 May, 2024

Minor Dalit Hindu girl lured into a relationship and assaulted by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Case Summary

In Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Dalit Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man named Sakib Mirza. The accused threatened and assaulted the victim. The accused concealed his Muslim identity and assumed a Hindu identity with the name Sagar Kumar. After his true identity was revealed, the girl ended all contact with him. Enraged, Sakib began harassing and stalking her. On May 3, 2024, he confronted her in the market, assaulted her, and threatened to kill her. A First Information Report (FIR No. 250/2024) was registered against Sakib at Sadar Bazar Police Station on May 6, 2024. The victim’s mother, Rani, stated that Sakib had pursued her daughter under a false identity and, after she ended the relationship, began calling her from various numbers and abusing her in vulgar language. On May 3, the girl had gone out for household work when Sakib intercepted her. She fled into a neighbour’s house, but Sakib followed her home, banged on the door, and issued death threats to her and the neighbour. The frightened neighbour called her brother-in-law for help. Upon seeing him and the landlord arrive, Sakib fled. Before leaving, he had assaulted the minor and touched her inappropriately. Sakib was arrested by the police and produced before the court on May 7, 2024, where the victim narrated her ordeal before the magistrate.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a minor Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man who pretended to be a 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. Hence, this case is added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the girl's ordeal began, but it mentions that the accused confronted her on 3rd May, 2024. Since this is the earliest date mentioned, we are considering this as when the victim's ordeal began and using this as the incident date. While media coverage of the incident emerged later, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.