Riyaz poses as a Hindu and marries Hindu woman in a temple, starts torturing and threatening her to convert to Islam after having a child
Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, India 
22 September, 2024
Case Summary
In Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district, a Hindu woman from Tripura lodged a complaint against a man named Riyaz Ahmed for deceit and coercion for religious conversion. She revealed that around four years ago, Riyaz, posing as Gulshan Manhas, a Hindu, befriended her on social media. They later married in a temple following Hindu customs in Andhra Pradesh in 2021, and she gave birth to a son named Gurdeep in December 2022. However, after the child’s birth, Riyaz began pressuring her to convert to Islam. When they moved to his hometown in Jammu, the woman grew suspicious of his real identity. Her suspicions were confirmed when locals revealed that his real name was Riyaz Ahmed and he was Muslim. Despite her refusal to convert, she faced physical assaults and threats from Riyaz and his family. The woman attempted to escape several times, filing a complaint at the Kandi police station, but no action was taken. Eventually, she fled to Chhattisgarh with her child and sought refuge with an NGO in Bhikhampura village. On September 23, she filed a formal complaint with the Raigarh District Collector, seeking justice and protection.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category- Hate crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes. Under this, three sub-categories have been selected as per case details. The first is- Man pretends to be Hindu, within which two tertiary categories, namely, 'Name changed' and 'Married as per Hindu rituals' have also been selected. 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 relevant 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. The third sub-category within which this case has been placed is- Assault or threat upon refusal to convert- When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The victim in the given case was a Hindu woman. The perpetrator, a Muslim man, got into a relationship with the victim by misleading the victim about his religious identity with the motive of converting her to Islam upon marriage. The fact that the perpetrator chose to marry her in a Hindu temple, according to Hindu traditions, points towards the fact that he wanted to specifically target the victim because of her religious identity as a Hindu. This act of deception is not merely a personal betrayal; it represents a broader attempt to undermine the religious and cultural values of the victim. Further, the religious angle of the crime became more apparent when the Muslim perpetrator started forcing the victim to change her religious identity to Islam. Lastly, when she resisted his conversion demands, the situation escalated to physical assaults and threats from both Riyaz and his family. These actions collectively illustrate a systematic pattern of deceit, forced conversion, and abuse, rooted in religious animosity. By targeting the victim based on her Hindu identity and employing such aggressive tactics to impose his beliefs, Riyaz’s conduct constitutes a serious infringement on her rights and a hate crime motivated by religious prejudice.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
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 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
