Case Summary

In the Shuddhodhan Village Municipality area of Kapilvastu district, Nepal, a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship and marriage by a Muslim man pretending to be Hindu. The accused convinced the victim for marriage, and during their marriage ceremony, the attendees discovered his real religious identity. According to media reports, the Muslim perpetrator was identified as Shakeel Ahmad, a resident of Kapilvastu district in Nepal, who introduced himself as Surya Prajapati to the Hindu victim. By using the Hindu name and presenting himself as belonging to the same faith, he gained the trust of the Hindu woman and her family. The accused proposed marriage to the Hindu woman, and subsequently, marriage talks progressed on the belief that both families shared the same religious background. Also, since her parents came from a poor background, they agreed to the marriage. On Wednesday, 4 February 2026, the Muslim man arrived at the woman's home with a wedding procession, following Hindu customs. The Dwar Puja and Jaimala rituals had already been completed. During the wedding ceremony, when the priest asked the accused about his gotra [Lineage/Clan], he was unable to answer. Upon suspicion, the accused was interrogated rigorously by the attendees, and he confessed his true Muslim identity. Following this, the Nepal Police was informed, and they arrested the Muslim man and registered a case against him. Subsequently, the police conducted a thorough investigation into the matter.

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is- Crimes against women in relationships or other sexual crimes. The sub-category selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary categories selected are- Name Changed, Marries as per Hindu rituals. 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 Hindu woman was deceived into a relationship and marriage ceremony by Shakeel Ahmad, a Muslim man pretending to be Hindu under the false identity of Surya Prajapati. His act of deception by posing as a Hindu demonstrated clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By hiding his true identity, Shakeel manipulated the Hindu woman's trust and that of her family, targeting her under false pretences and indicating a premeditated effort to exploit her based on her religious background. The marriage ceremony legitimised the relationship in the eyes of the woman and the wider Hindu community, with rituals like Dwar Puja and Jaimala already completed on 4 February 2026. This constituted a direct violation of the victim's right to informed consent regarding whom she chose to marry, as well as an infringement upon her religious beliefs. Thus, Shakeel’s deliberate decision to hide his religious identity strongly underscored the religious motive behind this crime. In such instances, identity concealment is not just a deceptive tactic for personal reasons but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. Shakeel knew the victim, being Hindu, would likely refuse his advances if she knew his real Muslim identity, so he circumvented this by lying, which directly pointed to religiously driven intent. His exposure during the gotra question and subsequent confession confirmed the fraud and deception. This act reflected a larger pattern where Hindu women were specifically singled out using false identities by Muslim men. Such targeted victimisation based on religion demonstrated a fundamental disregard for Hinduism and exposed deeper animosity toward Hindus and their beliefs, making it a religiously motivated crime. Furthermore, Shakeel disrespected the Hindu faith of the victim and her sacred marriage traditions by infiltrating and mimicking them. He participated in deeply meaningful rituals like Dwar Puja and Jaimala, then faltered on the gotra query, a core element of Hindu lineage and purity in matrimony, exposing his fraud. He used these customs as a medium to target her precisely for her Hindu identity, undermining their sanctity and turning a holy ceremony into a tool for religious targeting and deception. This blatant mockery of sacred traditions and rituals elevated the incident to a hate crime, driven by animosity towards Hindu beliefs and practices. Given that this case met several parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim's ordeal begins, rather than when the media reports it. In this particular case, media reports did not specify the exact date when the victim was first lured by the Muslim perpetrator. The report only referred to the marriage ceremony date on 4 February 2026. Therefore, this date is selected as the indicative date of the incident. This approach ensures accurate tracking and is documented solely for record-keeping purposes.