Hindu woman deceived into live-in relationship by Muslim man posing as Hindu; murdered and beheaded after she discovers the truth

Case ID : aa4b063 | Location : Khatima, Uttarakhand, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 31 December, 2021

Case ID : aa4b063

Khatima, Uttarakhand, India

31 December, 2021

Hindu woman deceived into live-in relationship by Muslim man posing as Hindu; murdered and beheaded after she discovers the truth

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Case Summary

In November 2024, Mushtaq, a resident of Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand, killed Pooja, with whom he had been living in a live-in relationship in Gurugram. Following the murder, he hid her body beneath a canal. The incident remained concealed for several months until the police uncovered it in April during their investigation. Pooja was originally from Nanakmaata, Uttarakhand. She was working at a beauty parlour in Gurugram. In 2022, Pooja's mother, who was living in Uttarakhand, was ill. Hence, Pooja travelled to her mother's place two or three times. During that, she used Mushtaq's Taxi. Mushtaq Ahmed introduced himself as Sunil. Soon, they were in relationship. Pooja had been divorced and was a mother of two children at the time she began living with Mushtaq. Over a period of two years, Mushtaq exploited Pooja financially and emotionally, taking advantage of her situation. During this time, he travelled back to Udham Singh Nagar and entered into a formal marriage with another woman. In October 2024, Pooja found out about his Muslim identity and his marriage. When Pooja raised the topic of marriage, he lured her out on the pretext of a trip and killed her on November 16, 2024. He went so far as to sever her head from the body in an attempt to obstruct identification. Further investigation revealed that Mushtaq had also been planning to sell Pooja’s daughter. The case came to light when Pooja’s younger sister filed a missing person’s report in Gurugram. Acting on the lead, police traced Mushtaq to his home district and arrested him.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is categorised under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under that, the relevant sub-category is- Man pretends to be Hindu, and within it, the tertiary category selected is- 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. This case qualifies as a hate crime because Mushtaq Ahmed concealed his religious identity and introduced himself to Pooja as 'Sunil'. By doing so, he gained her trust and entered into a live-in relationship under false pretences. Pooja, a Hindu woman and a single mother working in Gurugram, was misled into believing that she was in a relationship with someone of her own faith. This deception played a central role in facilitating prolonged emotional and financial exploitation. When Pooja found out about his true Muslim identity, Mushtaq killed her and severed her head. And while all this was a planned conspiracy, the fact that he hid his religious identity gives the crime a religious angle. The concealment of identity for the purpose of manipulation, followed by extreme violence, places this crime within the framework of a religiously motivated hate crime against a Hindu woman, warranting the inclusion of the incident in the Hinduphobia tracker. Disclaimer: Media reports state that the victim’s ordeal began when she met the accused in 2022, though no exact date or month is provided. To document this case, we have used an indicative date—January 1, 2022—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on May 1, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.