Hindu woman lured into romantic relationship, subjected to sexual exploitation and physical assault by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case ID : b1c5c91 | Location : Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 7 October, 2025

Case ID : b1c5c91

Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India

7 October, 2025

Hindu woman lured into romantic relationship, subjected to sexual exploitation and physical assault by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In Adhartal town, located in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man pretending to be Hindu. The accused lured and sexually exploited the woman over a prolonged period. Following this, she was subjected to threats and physical assault by the accused. According to media reports, the Hindu victim, a widow with a son, was lured into a romantic relationship by the Muslim accused named Aslam. The accused had deceived the victim by posing as a Hindu youth named Arvind Raghuwanshi. The victim was sexually exploited by the accused under this false identity for several months. When the victim discovered his real identity, she protested, and the accused assaulted both her and her son, threatening to kill her. Following these events, the victim approached the police for help. When she filed a complaint at the Adhartal police station, the police suppressed the matter by registering a case of simple assault and took no further action against the accused. After the lack of action, Hindu Dharma Sena, a Hindu organisation, intervened. Dharma Sena workers submitted a memorandum to Additional Superintendent of Police Suryakant Sharma, stating that the accused, claiming to be Arvind Raghuwanshi, had lured a widow into a love trap and sexually exploited her for several months. He had even arranged a rented house for the woman in Adhartal by showing her a fake Aadhaar card. They demanded that a case be filed against Aslam under serious legal sections. Following this complaint, Additional Superintendent of Police Suryakant Sharma directed Adhartal Training Inspector Praveen Kumar to investigate the matter thoroughly and take strict action against the Muslim accused, Aslam.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected in this case 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. The other subcategory selected in this case is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- Rape and sexual assault/ harassment. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. This case is a clear instance of a hate crime against Hindus. Firstly, the accused lured the Hindu woman into a relationship by pretending to be Hindu. This act itself reveals bias against the woman and her religion. The accused knew the woman, being Hindu, would likely reject his proposal if she knew his true religious identity. Therefore, he deliberately concealed his identity and targeted her. This constituted a direct violation of her right to informed consent regarding whom she chose to be in a romantic relationship with. The perpetrator’s conscious decision to hide his religious identity clearly underscores the religious motive behind this crime. Such identity concealment goes beyond personal deception; it is a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling that specifically targets Hindu women. This pattern of singling out Hindu women using false identities, often with coercion and conversion in mind by Muslim men, demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism and exposes deeper religious animosity. Secondly, the Hindu woman was sexually exploited by the Muslim perpetrator for several months through deliberate deception. This was not a random act of sexual exploitation but a targeted assault driven by religious bias. The deception followed by exploitation clearly shows this was an orchestration to single out and violate a Hindu woman because of her religious identity. Such acts of manipulation and religious profiling demonstrate the religiously motivated nature of the offence. Subsequently, when the Hindu victim discovered the true identity of the Muslim perpetrator and protested against his deceit, he did not apologise but instead acted violently, assaulting her. Furthermore, he threatened her and subjected her to intimidation. This behaviour was intended to break her spirit and force her submission to his acts of religious profiling and targeting based on her religious identity. These threats intensify the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Given that this case fulfils the parameters of a religiously motivated offence, it is being included in the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when the crime actually occurred rather than when it was reported by the media. In this case, media reports surfaced on 8th October 2025. However, as the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began is not specified in the media, the date of 8th October 2025 is being considered as the indicative date of the incident for documentation purposes.