Hindu woman sexually exploited in Surat after Muslim man deceives her by hiding identity

Case ID : d3275e3 | Location : Surat, Gujarat, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 4 February, 2026

Case ID : d3275e3

Surat, Gujarat, India

4 February, 2026

Hindu woman sexually exploited in Surat after Muslim man deceives her by hiding identity

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In Surat, Gujarat, a 21-year-old Hindu woman from Rajasthan was targeted and exploited by a Muslim man named Mohammad Tohidul, who deliberately hid his religious identity and posed as a Hindu to gain her trust. Using social media, he presented himself under a false name and background, knowing that the victim would not have entered a relationship if his real identity had been disclosed. Through sustained communication and emotional manipulation, he convinced her that he intended to build a future with her. After gaining her confidence, Tohidul persuaded her to travel to Surat. Once she arrived, he isolated her from her family and support system and kept her in hotels for an extended period. During this time, he repeatedly sexually assaulted her and controlled her movements. Her ability to leave or seek help was restricted through pressure, deception, and psychological dominance. His actions were aimed at exploiting her vulnerability after deceiving her about his religious identity. An accomplice named Aman was also involved in the crime and participated in the abuse. However, the primary control, planning, and deception were carried out by Tohidul, who used his false Hindu identity as the foundation of the entire crime. The victim was subjected to continuous sexual violence while being held under coercive conditions. She was prevented from freely contacting her family and was kept dependent on the perpetrators. The exploitation continued until she managed to escape and report the matter to the Surat police. After receiving her complaint, the police registered a case and arrested both Tohidul and Aman. An investigation was initiated, and legal proceedings were started under relevant criminal sections.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under this, the subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu, and the tertiary category selected is- Name changed. 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. Another sub-category this case follows is "Brainwashed and/or groomed". The tertiary category here is Rape and sexual assault/harassment. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. In this incident, the deliberate concealment of religious identity appears to be a foundational element of how the crime was carried out. The accused allegedly approached the victim while falsely presenting himself as belonging to her religion, indicating that the deception was not incidental but intentionally designed to bypass the social and religious boundaries that would likely have prevented the relationship from forming. Such misrepresentation suggests that the victim’s religious identity played a decisive role in her selection, as the alleged offender relied on the assumption that trust could only be secured by appearing to share her faith. The sustained communication, emotional grooming, and eventual relocation of the victim away from her familiar environment reportedly enabled the accused to exercise control and restrict her ability to seek assistance. When deception about religious identity becomes the entry point through which access, trust, and later coercion are established, it demonstrates that the offence was structured around exploiting faith-based trust rather than arising from a spontaneous interpersonal interaction. The involvement of an accomplice and the coordinated nature of the alleged acts further reinforce the impression that the offence was planned, with the false religious identity serving as the initial mechanism through which the victim was drawn into a vulnerable situation. These features collectively function as identifiable religious indicators showing that the victim’s faith identity was central to the method through which the crime unfolded. The intentional masking of religion to specifically approach a victim from another faith, followed by grooming, isolation, and prolonged abuse, reflects a pattern in which religious identity becomes the operational basis for targeting. Because the alleged actions relied on faith-based deception as the primary means of initiating and sustaining control over the victim, the incident contains clear religion-linked targeting elements that justify its documentation in a hate-crime tracker, alongside the serious criminal offences relating to coercion, confinement, and sexual violence. Disclaimer: For the purpose of recording this case in the database, the date has been marked as 5th February 2026, as this is the date on which the incident was first reported by multiple media sources and when official action by the authorities became publicly known. Since the exact date of the offence has not been clearly mentioned in the available reports, this reporting date has been used for documentation and reference purposes.