Hindu man stabbed by Muslim men for being in relationship with Muslim woman in Maharashtra

Case ID : a049296 | Location : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 28 October, 2025

Case ID : a049296

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

28 October, 2025

Hindu man stabbed by Muslim men for being in relationship with Muslim woman in Maharashtra

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Attacked by non-Hindu partner or/and her family

Case Summary

In Mumbai, Maharashtra, a 26-year-old Hindu doctor, Dr Vishal Harindra Yadav, working at Mumbai’s King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital, was stabbed by the brother of a Muslim woman colleague named Munja alias Munazza Khan, with whom he was in a romantic relationship. According to media reports, the accused, identified as Fareed Khan, Munja's brother, along with his Muslim friends Nabil Imam Shaikh and Alishan Hashmi, attacked Dr Yadav outside the hospital on 29th October 2025. The assault left Vishal with deep wounds on his back and arm. Regarding this incident, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered at the Bhoiwada Police Station on 30th October 2025, detailing the sequence of events leading to the attack. The Hindu victim, Dr Vishal Harindra Yadav, a resident of Nalasopara (East), Palghar District, had completed his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in Russia in 2023 before joining the Cardio-Vascular and Thoracic Surgery (CVTS) department at KEM Hospital as a House Officer on 1st August 2025. In his statement to the police, the victim recounted how he met Munja (Munazza) Khan, a perfusionist in the same department. Their frequent professional interaction soon blossomed into a romantic relationship. They had been seeing each other for some time and frequently communicated through WhatsApp and Instagram. The woman's family was unaware of their relationship until Munja’s sister, Faika, discovered it a week before the attack. The victim said, “Last week, Munja’s sister Faika learned about our relationship. On 29th October 2025, around 10:30 am, Munja’s brother, Fareed Khan, his friend Nabeel, and another person came outside Ward No. 31 and asked if I was Dr Vishal. When I confirmed, Fareed said, ‘Come with us to our house; we’ll settle whatever is between you and Munja.’” He added that Munja’s phone had been switched off that morning, and he refused to accompany them without speaking to her first. The accused, however, insisted and led him toward the Hanuman Mandir near the hospital, claiming they only wanted to “sort things out.” Once there, the tone of the conversation changed. Fareed Khan and his accomplices began abusing and assaulting him. The victim said, “They started beating me and shouting, ‘We are very bad, today we will not leave you alive.’ During this, Fareed took out a sharp knife and stabbed me in the back and on my left hand. The others continued to hit me. I cried for help as pedestrians began running away.” As a result of the attack, the doctor collapsed on the footpath, bleeding heavily, as the assailants fled. Passersby rushed to help Dr Yadav, who was immediately admitted to KEM Hospital’s emergency ward and received urgent medical care. Following this, the Bhoiwada Police registered a case under Sections 109 (abetment of an offence), 115 (abetment of a thing), 118(1) (abetment by the public or by more than ten persons), 3(5) (causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon), 351(3) (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from duty), and 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, and causing grievous hurt with a sharp weapon. The police formed multiple teams and analysed CCTV footage from the hospital and nearby lanes. Within 24 hours, Fareed Khan and Nabil Shaikh, both security guards at a construction site in Nagpada, were arrested. The third accused, Alishan Hashmi, was traced and arrested from Sewri Market after informants identified him from the footage. A senior police officer supervising the investigation said, “The accused initially intended to threaten the doctor to end the relationship. But when he refused to go with them, the confrontation escalated into a violent attack. CCTV footage and witness statements helped us crack the case swiftly.” At the time of writing, all three accused were in police custody, and further investigation was underway to determine if others in the family had prior knowledge or involvement. Dr Mohan Desai, Medical Superintendent of KEM Hospital, confirmed that the victim, Vishal, received timely medical care and was now recovering.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women. The subcategory selected is- Attacked by non-Hindu partner or/and her family. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is forced to convert his religion and upon his refusal to do so, the partner or/and her family attacks the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman or her family starts forcing/pressurizing the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu man is first forced/pressurized to change his religion by the non-Hindu woman or her family. The force/pressure could involve threats. The trigger for directing violence against the Hindu man is in these cases his refusal to comply and change his religion under threat and/or force. In other cases that have been documented, it is also seen that the Hindu partner is assaulted by the non-Hindu woman or her family simply for his relationship with the non-Hindu woman and by virtue of him following the Hindu faith and not the religion of the non-Hindu woman. In such cases, the relationship is consensual in most cases and the religion of both partners is known to the other. Often, in such cases, there is no direct force/pressure to convert either, however, the attack is a result of the Hindu man being in a relationship with the non-Hindu partner and not following her religion/following Hinduism specifically. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus, where the victim, a Hindu youth, was stabbed solely because he was in a relationship with a Muslim woman. The incident was not caused by any inappropriate behaviour or misconduct but exclusively due to the religious identities of the individuals involved. It must be emphasised that both the Hindu man and the Muslim woman were adults, free to make their own decisions; thus, the Muslim woman was in a relationship with the Hindu man out of her own free will. The violence inflicted on the Hindu man by the Muslim attackers starkly exemplifies a crime motivated by religious animosity rooted in the victim’s Hindu identity. The attack was triggered by his romantic relationship with the Muslim woman, which was unacceptable to her brothers and family within the Muslim community. Their violent reaction was not a personal dispute but a manifestation of deep-seated religious hatred targeting his Hindu identity. According to Islamic doctrine, a relationship or marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man is deemed invalid unless the man converts to Islam and marries the woman. This aspect of religious supremacy frequently results in intense pressure on the non-Muslim partner to convert, often escalating to harassment, coercion, and violence, as documented in numerous cases. In this instance, Dr Yadav neither converted nor intended to convert to Islam to marry the Muslim woman, yet continued the relationship. This absence of conversion and formal marriage was perceived by the Muslim woman’s family as a direct challenge to religious norms. The hostility directed at Dr Yadav was thus specifically because of his Hindu faith. The violent assault involving stabbing and severe physical harm vividly illustrates the extent of religious hatred borne by the assailants toward a Hindu man crossing prescribed religious boundaries without submission. This was no private quarrel but a clear act of religious intolerance and supremacy, whereby the victim’s Hindu identity and interfaith relationship incited brutal violence. Such attacks on Hindu men by Muslims over interfaith relationships or marriages with Muslim women are often justified under the guise of the “Bhagwa Love Trap” conspiracy theory. This theory, propagated by members of the Muslim community, claims that Hindu men target Muslim women for exploitation, supposedly due to their religious identity. However, this theory lacks credible evidence, with no documented cases of Hindu men disguising their identities to trap Muslim women. Instead, this conspiracy theory serves as a pretext to attack or kill Hindu men engaged in relationships or marriages with Muslim women. The principal cause of animosity is the Hindu man’s faith, making such incidents clear examples of religiously motivated crimes. The stabbing of a Hindu man in this case, directly due to his Hindu identity and interfaith relationship, highlights the depth of anti-Hindu animosity as the motivating factor in the attack. Given the religious motive, the explicit targeting of the victim’s Hindu identity, and the brutal nature of the violence, this incident qualifies as a definitive case of a religiously motivated hate crime. Consequently, the case is being included in the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker, emphasising the persistent threat faced by Hindu individuals from such religiously driven hostility.