Hindu woman lured, abducted, and raped at knifepoint by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : d327957 | Location : Prayagraj (Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 23 February, 2023

Case ID : d327957

Prayagraj (Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh, India

23 February, 2023

Hindu woman lured, abducted, and raped at knifepoint by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh

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 Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community was befriended and lured by a Muslim man named Sarfaraz Ansari, who posed as a Hindu man named Abhishek. The accused even subjected the victim to brutal rape at knifepoint. According to media reports, this occurred in the Sarainayat police station area and came to light when the victim's brother filed a police complaint against the accused on 25 February 2026. The 23-year-old Hindu victim lives in a village in the Sarainayat police station area and studied up to eighth grade. Her father was deceased, and her brother supported her. The woman was an active Instagram user. About three years ago (2023), she received a request from the accused's Instagram account, created under the name Abhishek. The woman accepted the request and began chatting. Following this, the two exchanged their mobile numbers and gradually increased their conversations, leading to her being lured into a relationship/friendship. On 24 February 2026, the Muslim accused came to meet her on a bike and asked the woman to accompany him. When the woman refused, he kidnapped her at knifepoint and took her to a hotel, where he forcibly raped her. A hotel employee checked their identity cards and found they belonged to different religions. He informed the police. Shortly thereafter, police arrived, apprehended the Muslim man and the Hindu woman, and brought them to the police station. When the truth about the accused's real identity emerged during interrogation, the victim was stunned. She had no idea Abhishek's real name was Sarfaraz Ansari. On the evening of 25 February 2026, the woman's brother filed a complaint with the police. Station House Officer Sarai Inayat Sanjay Gupta stated that the accused had befriended the Hindu victim on Instagram by changing his name. A case had been registered, and he was taken into custody and was being interrogated.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. 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. The other subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected 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 case, the Hindu woman was deceived and lured by a Muslim man pretending to be Hindu. After this, she was kidnapped at knifepoint and subjected to brutal rape. This series of incidents makes this crime a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. Firstly, the Muslim perpetrator's act of deception by posing as a Hindu demonstrates a clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim’s religion. By hiding his true identity, the Muslim man manipulated the Hindu woman's trust and targeted her under false pretences, indicating a premeditated effort to exploit the woman based on her religious background. Additionally, the online friendship legitimised the relationship in the eyes of the woman. This constituted a direct violation of her right to informed consent regarding whom she trusted, as well as an infringement upon her religious beliefs. Thus, the perpetrator’s deliberate decision to hide his religious identity strongly underscores 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. The accused knew that the victim, being Hindu, would likely refuse his advances if she knew his real identity, and he circumvented this by lying, which directly points to a religiously driven intent. This deception reflects a larger pattern where Hindu women are specifically singled out using false identities by Muslim men, often with sexual violence or conversion in mind. Such targeted victimisation based on religion not only demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism but also exposes a deeper animosity toward Hindus and their beliefs. Furthermore, after the initial deception, the accused met the Hindu victim, asked her to come with him, and when she refused, he abducted her at knifepoint and took her to a hotel where he raped her brutally. In this case, the victim was targeted for sexual violence due to her Hindu identity. The initial deception built a false friendship to trap her and enable further assault. Such sexual violence goes beyond forced gratification. It asserts religious domination by violating and humiliating a Hindu woman for her faith identity. This religiously motivated rape lays bare the crime's deep prejudice, turning a personal betrayal into a profound attack on her dignity and Hindu heritage. When the victim discovered his true Muslim identity during interrogation, she was shocked and shattered, amplifying the crime's devastating impact. The ongoing pretence as a Hindu even during the rape exposed the predatory depths of his scheme. He manipulated her trust to the very end, ensuring she endured the ultimate violation under the illusion of shared faith. This cruel deception shattered not just her body but her sense of safety in her own religious community, revealing a calculated intent to dominate, humiliate, and brainwash her through terror. Given that this case meets many parameters of a hate crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the dates of incidents based on when the victim's ordeal begins, rather than when it is reported by the media. However, in this current case, media reports have not stated the exact date of the victim's ordeal's beginning. It only states that she first started getting in contact with the accused in 2023. The only other earliest media date reported is 24 February 2026, the date when the accused met her by coming on a bike, abducted her at knifepoint, and raped her. So, based on these two pieces of information, an indicative date of 24 February 2023 is being selected as the incident date. This is recorded for documentation purposes only. This showcases an estimate of the beginning of the victim's ordeal.