Hindu woman lured into relationship, sexually exploited under pretext of marriage by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Case ID : d3278d4 | Location : Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 7 February, 2024

Case ID : d3278d4

Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, India

7 February, 2024

Hindu woman lured into relationship, sexually exploited under pretext of marriage by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In Mainpuri district, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman stated that a Muslim man hid his religious identity, posed as a Hindu, built a relationship with her under that guise, and sexually exploited her repeatedly over approximately two years. She stated that he promised marriage and engaged in physical relations on that pretext. He later assaulted her physically while threatening her life after she objected to discovering his true identity. This incident came to light when the Hindu victim lodged a written complaint at the Superintendent of Police's office demanding action. According to the complaint, around two years ago (2024), the Hindu woman from the Kotwali area of Mainpuri district met the Muslim accused, who presented himself as a Hindu and became friendly with her. The man initially befriended her, and gradually their relationship deepened into a romantic involvement. He promised to marry her, which led the Hindu victim to trust his assurances. On 8 February 2026, the man took the Hindu woman to a hotel on Radha Raman Road and sexually exploited her. While in the hotel room, the woman noticed the man’s Aadhaar card on a table and discovered his Muslim identity, which he had concealed. Upon realising that he was not who he claimed to be, the Hindu victim objected and expressed her intention to file a police complaint. After this, the Muslim man physically assaulted her and issued her death threats. Following this incident, the Hindu woman went to the office of the Superintendent of Police and submitted a written complaint detailing the exploitation, concealment of identity, assault, and threats she experienced. Officials confirmed receipt of the Hindu woman’s complaint. The Superintendent of Police stated that the matter was being investigated to verify the facts and circumstances. Police began a formal inquiry, and further action would be taken based on the findings of the investigation.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category for this case is "Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes". The sub-category here 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. Another sub-category for this case is "Brainwashed and/or Groomed". The tertiary category 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. This case was a blatant example of an anti-Hindu hate crime targeting a Hindu woman through deliberate religious deception and manipulation. The accused intentionally misrepresented himself by pretending to be Hindu in order to lure the victim, a Hindu woman from the Kotwali area of Mainpuri district, into a relationship that lasted about two years. This deception was not incidental but a calculated act rooted firmly in religious animosity. The accused was fully aware that revealing his true Muslim identity would most likely result in rejection due to the victim’s Hindu beliefs. To circumvent this, he concealed his faith, deliberately exploiting the victim's trust and deeply held cultural and religious values. This manipulation highlighted systemic religious bias, as it specifically targeted the victim’s religious identity and beliefs. Posing as a Hindu to trap the victim into intimacy reflected a disturbing pattern observed in multiple cases, where Muslim men had targeted Hindu women by adopting false Hindu identities. This modus operandi had been repeatedly employed for sexual exploitation or forced religious conversion, exposing a clear, hateful agenda aimed at undermining Hindu identity and individuality. Therefore, this case was unequivocally a religiously motivated offence, as the victim was lured under false pretences related specifically to her faith and subsequently sexually exploited over about two years. The sexual exploitation in this instance was conducted under a veil of deceit and manipulation, extending far beyond mere physical gratification. The victim was targeted specifically because of her Hindu identity, which the accused sought to undermine and exploit. He used the pretext of marriage to gain her trust, demonstrating calculated and predatory behaviour driven by religious animus. This premeditated exploitation, where the victim’s religious identity was weaponised against her, represented a grievous violation of her dignity and safety, amounting to a clear manifestation of a religiously motivated hate crime. Such acts inflicted profound damage not only on the victim but also sent a chilling message to the wider Hindu community about the persistent threat posed by individuals who manipulated faith to perpetrate sexual violence against Hindu women. These actions stemmed from deep-seated animosity towards the victim and her religion, thereby affirming this as a religiously motivated crime. Furthermore, when the victim discovered the accused's true Muslim identity upon noticing his Aadhaar card in the hotel room on Radha Raman Road on 8 February 2026, the Muslim man physically assaulted her and issued death threats. This violent response was specifically intended to silence her, break her spirit, and force her submission to ongoing sexual exploitation, thereby underscoring the religiously motivated hate crime nature of the offence. Given that this case met the parameters of a religiously motivated crime against a Hindu woman, it was included in the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records dates of incidents based on when the crime occurred or when the victim's ordeal began, rather than when it is reported by the media. However, in this current case, media reports did not state the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. They only stated that she met the accused in 2024. The only other date the media reports mentioned was 8 February 2026, when she discovered his true religious identity. Henceforth, based on both these pieces of information, 8 February 2024 was selected as an indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.