Md Aalim becomes Anand Kumar to trap Hindu woman, marries her in temple, rapes her and forces her to convert

Case ID : b0f5177 | Location : Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 12 May, 2022

Case ID : b0f5177

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India

12 May, 2022

Md Aalim becomes Anand Kumar to trap Hindu woman, marries her in temple, rapes her and forces her to convert

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Marries as per Hindu rituals

Name Changed

Forced conversion after marriage

Case Summary

On September 30, 2024, a man named Aalim Ahmed in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, was sentenced to life in prison for rape, fraud and forced conversion of a Hindu woman to Islam. In May 2023, a 20-year-old woman filed a police complaint against Mohammed Aalim Ahmed, 25, accusing him of deceiving her by pretending to be "Anand Kumar." The two had met in 2022 while attending the same coaching centre and later developed a relationship. According to the woman's complaint, they got married in a temple on March 13, 2022, with the woman unaware of his true identity at the time. Later, Aalim pressured her to convert to Islam and forced her to undergo an abortion when she became pregnant with his child. Assistant District Government Counsel, Digambar Patel, revealed that the woman first met Aalim on a train while travelling to the coaching centre. After his religious identity was revealed and she filed the complaint in 2023, Aalim was arrested. The case was heard in a fast-track court by Additional District Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar. The victim initially testified on July 31, 2024, recounting how Aalim had tricked her and coerced her throughout their relationship. However, she subsequently failed to attend further court hearings, despite multiple summonses and warrants. Eventually, the police detained her and brought her back to court. In a surprising turn, she changed her story, stating that she had registered the FIR under pressure from right-wing groups on her parents. Despite her later retraction, the court relied on her earlier statements recorded under Sections 161 and 164 of the CrPC. The court also suspected that the woman was under Aalim's influence, noting her financial situation. Although unemployed, she was living independently in a rented house and using an expensive mobile phone, which raised suspicions of foreign financial backing or influence. The court considered the possibility that external forces were involved in Aalim’s efforts to pressure her into converting. Employees from a hotel where the woman had reportedly been raped by Aalim testified during the trial, stating that she often appeared upset. These testimonies, combined with other pieces of evidence, led the court to convict Aalim under several sections of the IPC. The court also convicted Ahmed’s father of criminal intimidation and sentenced him to two years in prison. Along with this, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been placed in the tracker under the prime category- Hate crime against women in relationships and sexual crimes. Under this, two sub-categories have been selected. The first is- Man pretends to be Hindu and within this, two tertiary categories, namely, 'Marries as per Hindu rituals' and 'Name Changed' have been chosen. 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 sub-category chosen here is- Forced conversion after marriage- In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for Halala, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. Here, the Muslim man, disguised himself as a Hindu to deceive and lure a Hindu woman, subsequently marrying her in a temple. This act is not merely a case of deception; it is a calculated and manipulative effort rooted in religious bias. By pretending to share the same faith as the woman, Aalim Ahmed deliberately undermined her ability to make an informed decision about her relationship, based on a false sense of shared religious identity. The choice to marry her in a temple, a sacred space for Hindus, further highlights the malicious intent behind the act. This is a significant violation of the woman’s religious beliefs, as it exploits her faith and religious practices to entrap her in a marriage founded on lies. The use of a temple marriage serves to legitimise the union in the eyes of the woman and her community, making the deception all the more egregious. Once married, the accused's true identity and intentions were revealed as he began to pressurise the victim to convert to Islam. He also emotionally and physically tortured the victim by forcing her to undergo an abortion. This case qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime because it involves the deliberate targeting of a Hindu woman’s religious identity through deception, followed by abuse once the truth is revealed. The initial act of pretending to be Hindu, followed by marriage in a temple, is a calculated assault on the woman's religious faith. The subsequent torture underscores the deep-seated religious hatred, as it serves to punish and subjugate the woman for her faith, making this a clear instance of religiously motivated violence and bigotry. Here, it is important to note that, while the victim did alter her testimony later in the trial, the court chose to rely on her earlier statements and other substantial evidence to convict the accused, Aalim Ahmed. The court suspected external pressures or influences on the victim's change in narrative, and thus, the verdict was based on the initial, more credible account. We have relied on the court’s ruling and the gravity of the evidence presented and included this case in the tracker as a religiously motivated hate crime.