Salim poses as Sanju to trap Hindu girl in a love affair, murders and buries her when she is 7-months pregnant
Rohtak, Haryana, India 
19 October, 2024
Case Summary
Delhi Police uncovered a murder case involving Sonia, a 20-year-old woman from Nangloi, Delhi, who was found dead on October 21, 2024. Sonia had reportedly been in a relationship with Salim, who presented himself as a Hindu named "Sanju" to gain her trust. Salim courted her under the guise of love, and sexually assaulted her, which led to Sonia’s pregnancy. When Sonia asks Salim to marry her, he devises a plan to kill her rather than commit. On October 20, during the Hindu festival of Karwa Chauth, Salim told Sonia they would marry and suggested she fast for him. He invited her to meet that evening to "break the fast." Sonia left her home to meet him. Salim and two friends, Ritik and Pankaj, reportedly picked her up in a car and, under the pretext of celebrating, strangled her to death. They then buried her body in a six-foot-deep grave in Rohtak. When Sonia did not return, her family filed a missing person report on October 21, suspecting "Sanju." They initially believed Sonia was romantically involved with a Hindu man, as she had saved his number as "Bhoot" and even posted about him on Instagram. Her family tried to locate him, only to learn from Salim's relatives that "Sanju" was actually Salim, a Muslim. The family verified this with identification documents provided by Salim's family. The police acted quickly, locating and arresting Salim. The two accomplices, Ritik and Pankaj, were also detained. Salim admitted during interrogation that he had been posing as a Hindu to initiate a relationship with Sonia, using the alias "Sanju."
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been documented as a religious hate crime because the details clearly show that the offender had a bias against the Hindu faith and that the offence was performed in conjunction with that bias. Based on case details, it has been added under two prime categories of the tracker. The first is- Hate crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes. Under this, the sub-category selected is- 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. The second category under which this case has been placed is- Attack resulting in death. This case has been categorized as a religiously motivated hate crime based on Salim’s deliberate deception, where he concealed his Muslim identity by posing as a Hindu under the alias "Sanju" to gain Sonia’s trust. The fact that he deliberately posed as a Hindu, to initiate a relationship, highlights that his actions were driven by religious manipulation. This act of deception aligns with a broader pattern of targeting individuals from specific religious communities for exploitation, with the intention of taking advantage of their trust. Further, the religious angle of the crime became more apparent when the Muslim man continued to take advantage of her physically under the guise of marriage and when the victim asked the accused to honour his commitment to marry her, he killed her. It is important to note that while Sonia was tragically killed, this case has not been categorized under "murder for refusal to convert." Without clear evidence that the murder was triggered by her refusal to convert to Islam, such a classification would be speculative. Instead, the focus here is on Salim's deliberate deception, where he exploited Sonia's trust by posing as a Hindu, and the subsequent violence he inflicted on her. This classification highlights the calculated manipulation targeting her religious identity and trust, without presuming an explicit intent to convert.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
