Muslim man pretends to be Hindu, rapes Hindu woman on pretext of employment, then forces her to convert

Case ID : b50742a | Location : Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 19 November, 2024

Case ID : b50742a

Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

19 November, 2024

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Case Summary

In the Moradabad division of Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim youth named Shariq posed as Honey to trap a 20-year-old Hindu woman from the Katghar police station area. He raped her in the name of getting her a job, and then forced her to embrace Islam. The authorities filed a case on the complaint of the victim and arrested him. The victim revealed that the offender befriended her and lured her into a romantic relationship under the pretext of employment. He even obtained a fraudulent Aadhaar Card in which a locality in Bijnor district was mentioned as his address. He took her out, sexually assaulted her, and then pressured her to convert to Islam. He reportedly kept her as his wife. On the evening of November 20, she narrated the ordeal to her family members. Shariq's real identity was exposed after investigation. He was found to be from Rampur’s Peela Talab region which falls in the jurisdiction of Ganj police station. Superintendent of Police (SP) City Ranvijay Singh informed that the culprit had been apprehended and a case had been lodged based on the complaint.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

A key aspect of this case that highlights the Muslim perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith is his deliberate deception, pretending to be a Hindu to mislead the victim. Therefore, the primary category identified is Crimes Against Women in Relationships and Sexual Crimes, with the subcategory Man Pretends to Be Hindu. Additionally, the tertiary category Name Changed has also been selected to reflect the perpetrator's intentional misrepresentation. 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 before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. In this instance, the Muslim perpetrator concealed his religious identity to deceive and trap the Hindu woman, demonstrating clear bias and malicious intent toward her religion. This act of deception severely compromises the woman’s ability to make informed decisions regarding her relationship and religious choices. Furthermore, the details of the case reveal a deliberate targeting of the Hindu woman, with the intent to isolate her from her faith and impose a different religious identity upon her. This manipulation reflects the accused's clear bias against Hinduism. His actions were not just about physical exploitation but were rooted in a desire to strip the victim of her Hindu identity and force her into adopting Islam. Given these elements, the case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime, driven by the accused's animosity towards the Hindu faith.