Hindu girl raped by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case Summary
On 1st December 2024, the District Session Judge in Kotdwar, Pauri Garhwal, sentenced a man named Aslam to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for trapping a young Hindu girl in a love jihad scheme in April 2019. Aslam had misrepresented himself as Vinod Bisht and exploited the girl, eventually sexually assaulting her. He attempted to take the girl to Rajasthan under the pretense of marriage, but was caught by Kotdwar police after her family alerted the authorities. Aslam, a native of Rajasthan's Neemka police station, was also fined Rs 26,000. Hindu organisations expressed satisfaction with the court's strict punishment, highlighting the issue of love jihad, sexual assault, and blackmailing girls by making videos of the incidents.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being added to the primary category 'Crimes against women in relationship and other sexual crimes'. The sub-category chosen is 'man pretends to be Hindu'. 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. In this case, the woman complained that the Muslim man had pretended to be a Hindu, deceived her and even raped her. While the violating a woman is a heinous crime ab initio, what makes this case a religiously motivated hate crime is the fact that the Muslim man had pretended to be a Hindu. When the perpetrator hides his religious identity in order to trap a Hindu woman, it becomes evident that the purpose of doing so was driven by the motivation of trapping that victim, specifically, because of her religious identity. It is an act of malafide intentions since the man deprives the woman agency to choose her partner, misrepresents his faith to specifically target the religious identity of the victim. For that reason, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.
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 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0

Case Status
Perpetrator held guilty by court

Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male