Muslim man poses as Hindu, marries Hindu victim, tortures her to convert to Islam post marriage

Case ID : b45f392 | Location : Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 26 November, 2024

Case ID : b45f392

Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India

26 November, 2024

Muslim man poses as Hindu, marries Hindu victim, tortures her to convert to Islam post marriage

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Marries as per Hindu rituals

Name Changed

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, a Muslim man, identified as Qasim from Noori Nagar, hid his true identity and posed as a Hindu named Guddu. He first connected with a Hindu girl on social media in 2021, where Qasim built a relationship under his false identity. After gaining her trust, he took her to Jabalpur under the pretext of marriage. It was only after the marriage that the girl discovered his real name and religion. Following their marriage, Qasim brought the girl to his house in Noori Nagar, Damoh, where he not only pressured her to convert to Islam but also subjected her to physical abuse. Distressed and feeling trapped, the girl sought refuge at her grandmother’s home. However, Qasim continued to harass and intimidate her, attempting to force her back into the relationship. On November 27, 2024, the girl went to the SP office and submitted a formal complaint. She stated that Qasim had fraudulently married her under a false identity and was now pressuring her to convert. In response to the victim's complaint, the police registered a case against Qasim, charging him under sections 417 (fraud), 264, and 506B (threatening).

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the primary category "Crimes against women in relationship and other sexual crimes". Two sub-categories are being selected for this case. The first sub-category 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 Muslim perpetrator pretended to be a Hindu by changing his name to hide his true religious identity. He went further in his deception by marrying the Hindu woman as per Hindu rituals, so as to avoid detection of his real religious identity. The second sub-category 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. In this case, the Muslim perpetrator pretended to be a Hindu to trap the Hindu victim. He then kept the ruse on by marrying the victim as per Hindu religious rituals. It was only after marriage that the man revealed his real identity and thereafter, started torturing the victim to convert to Islam. The pretence of being a Hindu to trap the victim and then the physical abuse to force her to convert to Islam is driven by an inherent and scriptural hostility towards the victim owing to her religious identity. The fact that the Muslim perpetrator misled the woman into believing that he was a Hindu and started torturing her to convert to Islam only after she was trapped in the marriage proves that the victim was specifically targeted owing to her religious identity and the motivation was to disenfranchise her from her professed faith. For that reason, the case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.