Dalit Hindu woman deceived, sexually exploited and abused with casteist slurs by man posing as Hindu

Case ID : 99586cf | Location : Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 26 August, 2023

Case ID : 99586cf

Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand, India

26 August, 2023

Dalit Hindu woman deceived, sexually exploited and abused with casteist slurs by man posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In Bajpur tehsil of Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand, a Dalit Hindu woman was lured into a relationship, sexually exploited and abused with caste based slurs by a young man, who pretended to be Hindu. According to reports, the young man, a resident of Bajpur, lured the Hindu woman, belonging to the Scheduled caste community, through Facebook two years ago. The accused hid his religious identity, introducing himself as a Hindu man, and gradually established a relationship with her. The accused manipulated her into leaving her house, after which they began living together in a rented house in the Kaladhungi area. Over time, he continued the relationship and sexually exploited her on the false pretext of marriage, due to which the victim became pregnant. On August 27, 2025, the victim gave birth to a daughter. However, when she approached the accused for marriage, he revealed that he was already married and belonged to another religion. On September 11, 2025, when she went to his house, his family verbally abused her using casteist slurs, physically assaulted her, and drove her out of the house. The victim subsequently approached the police and filed a complaint against the accused. She also asked for protection of her life and property from the police. Police Inspector Praveen Singh Koshyari confirmed that the complaint had been received and that the case was under investigation.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The other subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary categories selected are- Name changed. 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 other subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- Rape and sexual assault/harassment. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. This case has been added to the tracker because a Dalit Hindu woman was lured into a relationship by a young man from Bajpur, 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, reflecting a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. The fact that the accused was already married and had no intention of marrying her indicates that he was only interested in the sexual exploitation of a Hindu woman. Furthermore, when the victim went to the house of the accused, she was verbally abused using casteist slurs and physically assaulted by the accused's family. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro-identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions or non-Hindu religions are concerned, the micro-identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, when the accused's family hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by their animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. The fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator makes it a religiously motivated hate crime against the victim. 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, though it is mentioned that she came into contact with the accused through Facebook, about two years ago. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—August 27, 2023—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on September 14, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.