Bilal Rafiq pretends to be Navy officer to establish relations with Hindu woman, forces her to convert to Islam, his family hurls casteist slurs
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 
8 October, 2024
Case Summary
On October 9, 2024, Govindpur Police (Bengaluru) arrested one Bilal Rafiq, a Kerala native – who disguised as a Navy officer and manipulated a Hindu woman from Chhattisgarh, establishing a sexual relationship with her. The accused befriended the woman promising marriage and then forced her to convert to Islam. The woman filed a complaint against Bilal, whom she met on Instagram in 2021. Bilal, who falsely claimed to be a high-ranking commander in the Merchant Navy, gained her trust and convinced her to move to Bangalore for work. In 2022, she started a nursing job at a private hospital. However, their relationship deteriorated as Bilal pressured her into sexual encounters, leading to two pregnancies, which he insisted she terminate, arguing it was inappropriate to have children before marriage. When the woman became pregnant for a third time and refused to abort, she asked Bilal to marry her. Although he initially agreed, he later pressured her to convert to Islam, postponing the wedding when she refused. Bilal also exploited her trust by demanding Rs 1 lakh and an expensive phone for wedding preparations, while his parents subjected her and her family to caste-based insults. When she proposed marrying under the Special Marriage Act, which allows interfaith marriages without conversion, Bilal continued to refuse, prompting her to file a complaint with the police. The police detained Bilal under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for cheating and sexual assault, as well as under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention and Atrocities) Act.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under two prime categories. The first is 'Hate crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes'. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The second category relevant here is- Hate speech against Hindus and within this, the sub-category selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This incident is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, as the accused, Bilal Rafiq, imposed conversion to Islam as a prerequisite for marriage with the Hindu woman. By placing religious conversion as a condition, Bilal’s actions indicate a deliberate disregard for her faith and identity, making her Hindu beliefs a target of coercion. His insistence on conversion, even after initially agreeing to marriage, underscores the religious hostility at the core of this manipulation. This exploitation, centred around religious conversion, not only violated her autonomy but also weaponized religion as a tool for control, making it a blatant manifestation of religiously motivated animosity and disrespect. Further, the victim herself testified that she and her family were abused with caste slurs by the accused. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at his micro identity of belonging to the ST/SC section of the Hindu community and not his Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic 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, while Islamists hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. The fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator makes it even more of an overt act of religious hatred directed towards the victim and this is also why this case has been included here.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
