Hindu man assaulted and killed by Muslim girlfriend's family over interfaith relationship

Case ID : cb280ea | Location : Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 25 September, 2023

Case ID : cb280ea

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

25 September, 2023

Hindu man assaulted and killed by Muslim girlfriend's family over interfaith relationship

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Killed by non-Hindu partner's family

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In the Jajmau area of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man named Krish Gupta was assaulted for having an interfaith relationship with a Muslim girl by Muslim family members. Furthermore, when he went to the girl's house to meet her, his body was found hanging the following morning, which the victim's family stated was killed by the Muslim girl's brothers. According to reports, the victim, Krish Gupta, who worked in the tent business, was in a romantic relationship with a Muslim girl in the same neighbourhood for over two years. The girl's family strongly opposed the relationship, and they had also previously threatened and assaulted the victim after they saw him talking to the girl. Despite this hostility, the couple continued to meet secretly at night, and the relationship continued. On the night of 26 September 2025, during a brief power cut, the Muslim girl contacted Krish and called him to her home. As he had done many times before, he jumped over the rooftops to meet her, but never returned. When his family woke in the morning and found him missing, they contacted the police and began searching the area. A local resident named Hrithik Jaiswal, who had gone towards the nearby military farm, discovered Krish’s body hanging from a tree about 500 metres from the victim's home. His mobile phone was found broken a short distance away, adding to the suspicion of foul play. Within moments, a large crowd gathered, along with the victim’s family, who demanded immediate arrests, insisting that Krish had been killed by the Muslim girl's family members and then hanged to pass off the death suicide. Police teams from multiple stations, along with Deputy Commissioner of Police East Satyajeet Gupta, reached the scene, removed the body and sent it for post-mortem examination. Meanwhile, the family members of the woman fled the area soon after the body was found. On the basis of the written complaint filed by Krish’s elder brother Shivam, the police registered an FIR naming eight individuals of the woman’s family and associates: Ramzan alias Namu, Aqib Abbasi, Wasim, Junaid, Shoaib, Ikram, Imran and Sabir, along with unidentified others. Police stated that further legal action would be taken after the post-mortem report. The victim's family continued to press for swift arrests of the accused, stating that the victim was killed because of the interfaith relationship.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Killed by non-Hindu partner's family. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is forced/pressured to convert his religion and upon his refusal to do so, the family of the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman and her family start forcing/pressurizing the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim woman could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu man is first forced/pressurized to change his religion by the non-Hindu woman’s family. The pressure could involve threats. The trigger to murdering the Hindu man in these cases is his refusal to comply and change his religion under threat and/or force. In other cases that have been documented, it is also seen that the Hindu partner is murdered by the family of the non-Hindu woman simply for his relationship with the non-Hindu woman and by virtue of him following the Hindu faith and not the religion of the non-Hindu woman. In such cases, the relationship is consensual in most cases and the religion of both partners is known to the other. Often, in such cases, there is no direct force/pressure to convert either, however, the murder is a result of the Hindu man being in a relationship with the non-Hindu partner and not following her religion/following Hinduism specifically. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The second primary category selected is - Attack resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime. Under this category, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu youth, Krish Gupta, was assaulted for having an interfaith relationship with a Muslim girl by her family members. Furthermore, when he went to meet the girl, he was found dead the following morning. The victim's family explicitly stated that Krish was killed by the Muslim girl's brothers. Since the motive for the crime isn't laid out explicitly, people may argue that it is possible that the crime was not motivated by religion, and as such, it should not be included in this tracker. Therefore, at this point, it becomes essential to understand why then, we have added this case to the hate crime database. In this case, two primary factors establish that it was a religiously motivated hate crime. The first component which makes it worthy of being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime is the testimony of the family of the deceased Hindu victim. The victim's family and his brother stated that he was killed by the Muslim girl's family, since he was having a relationship with the Muslim girl. Second, this case should be included in this database because the victim is no longer alive, and there is a precedent of such cases turning out to be hate crimes against Hindu men. Furthermore, the last place that the victim went to was the Muslim girl's house, indicating involvement of the Muslim family. In several cases where a Hindu man is in a relationship with a Muslim woman, the family of the Muslim woman ends up assaulting or murdering the man because of their disapproval of the relationship. In such cases, the relationship is consensual, and the man and woman are with each other, knowing each other’s identity fully well. Such cases are often called ‘honour killings’ and are seen in associations across religions, castes, economic strata, etc. In several such cases, the motivations for the violence or murder are stated and clear. For example, in some cases, the perpetrators would clearly mention what their main motivation to commit the crime was, whether it was because the partner was economically weaker, from a different caste or religion. In some cases, however, the motives are not stated and/or reported. To determine whether such cases are religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of a clearly stated motive, one has to understand what could possibly be the main factor which the perpetrator's family would believe diminishes the family’s ‘honour’, leading to the crime. For the purpose of this tracker, we would only be looking at cases where one of the determining factors of the crime is religion, which is to say that the man belongs to the Hindu faith and the woman to a non-Hindu faith. In such cases, even if the motivation is not stated, it can be said that the determining factor or at least one of the main considerations, leading to the crime would be the religious identity of the Hindu man, especially if the woman in the relationship is a Muslim. In the Islamic faith, a marriage is deemed illegitimate if the non-Muslim partner does not convert to Islam. For those who practice the faith, when the Muslim woman in their family is in a relationship with a Hindu man, the difference in religions followed becomes the main point of disapproval for the family of the Muslim woman. Because of the ingrained element of religious supremacy in Islam, even if the motivations are not explicit, it can reasonably be concluded as one of the determining factors of the assault or murder committed by the Muslim family against the Hindu man. Such incidents, where Hindu men are murdered by the family of a Muslim woman, are deeply rooted in religious disdain, disapproval, and hatred towards the Hindu man because of his religious identity. Therefore, this case warrants inclusion in the hate crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of the incident based on when the crime occurred. The media reports published this case on 28 September 2025. However, the media reports do not specify the exact date of the beginning of the victim’s ordeal, though it is mentioned that they were in a relationship for about two years. The victim went to the girl's house on 26 September 2025, after which he was found dead the following morning. Considering these two pieces of information, we are using an indicative date of 26 September 2023 as the date of the incident. This date is used for documentation purposes only and represents the estimated beginning of his ordeal.