Muslim family pretends to be Hindu to trap woman into marriage, forces her to convert to Islam

Case Summary
On December 12, 2024, Aman Qureshi from Delhi was booked by the Rudrapur Police in Uttarakhand for deceiving a Hindu woman, Menaka Kohli, into marriage by posing as a Hindu man named Aman Choudhary. The case was registered following a complaint by the woman’s brother, Vinod Kohli, under the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018, and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nayay Sanhita. According to the complaint, Aman Qureshi introduced himself as a member of a Kumaoni Hindu family settled in Delhi and convinced the Kohli family of his fabricated identity with the help of an intermediary, Santosh Kumar. The Kohli family, reassured by Aman’s claims and the Hindu environment of his residence, proceeded with the arranged marriage. Aman’s home in Delhi had a small temple, and his family presented themselves as devout Hindus. The couple got engaged on October 13, 2024, at City Club in Rudrapur, in a ceremony that followed traditional Kumaoni Hindu customs. Aman’s family attended the engagement in traditional Hindu attire. The wedding, held on December 10, was conducted with Hindu rituals, during which the Kohli family spent ₹18–20 lakhs, including gifting gold jewellery weighing approximately 150–160 grams. However, suspicions arose after the wedding when the Kohli family visited Aman’s residence in Delhi again and found it to be starkly different from their earlier visit. This time, Aman’s family members were dressed in Islamic attire, and Islamic practices were openly being followed in the household. Upon questioning, Aman’s family admitted they were Muslims and insisted that Menaka would now have to adhere to Islamic customs and convert to Islam. This revelation led the Kohli family to file a complaint, stating that Aman Qureshi and his family deliberately concealed their religious identity with the intention of coercing Menaka into religious conversion after marriage. Following the complaint, SSP Rudrapur Manikant Mishra took swift action, forming a Special Operations Group (SOG) team that was dispatched to Delhi. The team successfully rescued Menaka from Aman’s residence. Superintendent of Police Uttam Singh Negi confirmed that Aman Qureshi had been arrested. The intermediary, Santosh Kumar, who played a role in facilitating the deception, was also named in the FIR.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being added to the primary category 'Crimes against women in relationship and other sexual crimes'. Because of the various indications of the religious motivations of the crime, the case is being added to three separate sub-categories. 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. The second sub-category is 'Blackmailed to convert'. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The third sub-category 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. In this case, the perpetrator's entire family pretended to be Hindu and follow Hindu rituals to trap the Hindu woman into a marriage. They put a temple in the house and pretended by pious Hindus to mislead the Hindu family into marrying their daughter to the perpetrator. It was only after marriage that they started revealing their true religious identity. After having revealed their identity, they told the family that the woman victim would have to convert to Islam and follow Islamic rituals. The entire ruse constructed by the Muslim family proves that they had specifically targeted the woman based on her religious identity and with the explicit purpose of trapping a Hindu woman and converting her, by force and deception, to Islam. Such crimes are driven by religious hostility and the doctrinal mandate to either convert non-Muslim, especially Hindus, or kill them. Since the crime is driven by religious hostility, and the doctrinal mandate to disenfranchise the victim from her professed faith, the 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 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0

Case Status
Case sub-judice

Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both