Hindu woman lured, harassed and sexually exploited by Muslim man who pretended to be Hindu in Surguja, Chhatisgarh

Case ID : d327a1e | Location : Surguja, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 7 March, 2023

Case ID : d327a1e

Surguja, Chhattisgarh, India

7 March, 2023

Hindu woman lured, harassed and sexually exploited by Muslim man who pretended to be Hindu in Surguja, Chhatisgarh

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 Surguja, Chhattisgarh, a Hindu woman was lured, sexually exploited and threatened by a Muslim man named Raja Ansari, who pretended to be a Hindu. According to reports, the victim, a resident of Surguja district, first met the accused, Raja Ansari, at a fair. During this time, he cultivated a relationship with her by presenting himself as a Hindu man named Raja Mahant. He gradually gained her trust by promising marriage and gradually deepened their relationship, visiting her home on 8 March 2023 and again on 22 March 2023, her birthday, when he stayed overnight. He subsequently brought her to Ambikapur and kept her in a rented accommodation. In order to reinforce his deception, he applied vermilion on his forehead and enacted a mock marriage ritual to convince her of his intentions. On 2 April 2023, he established physical relations with her for the first time under the pretext of marriage. Meanwhile, the accused had deliberately concealed his true identity and the fact that he was already married, thereby inducing the victim into a sexual relationship through fraud. When the woman later insisted on meeting his family, he took her to his residence, where she discovered that he was a Muslim and his real name was Raja Ansari. When she confronted him, he subjected her to threats, harassment and intimidation. He confiscated her mobile phone and threatened to make her private photographs and videos viral. The victim eventually managed to escape and returned to her family, following which she lodged a complaint with the police. An FIR was registered, and after investigation, a chargesheet was filed before the court. After examining the evidence and hearing arguments from both sides, the court found Raja Ansari guilty under Sections 417 and 376(2)(N) of the Indian Penal Code. He was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of ₹500 under Section 417, and to life imprisonment along with a fine of ₹500 under Section 376(2)(N), with both sentences to run concurrently. The court observed that the act constituted not only sexual violence but also a grave violation of the woman’s dignity, privacy and bodily autonomy. It held that the accused had, in a premeditated manner, introduced himself as Raja Mahant to win the victim’s confidence and exploit her sexually, and emphasised that such offences warranted stringent punishment to deter similar crimes and uphold the honour and self-respect of women.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been 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 categories selected are- 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 categories 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 constituted a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, as the Hindu woman was deliberately targeted, deceived, and sexually exploited by the Muslim accused, who pretended to be a Hindu. The pattern of crime was not incidental or purely interpersonal but rooted in hostility towards her Hindu identity. Firstly, the accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. In such instances, identity concealment was 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 pointed to a religiously driven intent. Secondly, the act of applying vermillion to the victim further illustrates his intent to reinforce his fabricated Hindu identity. The act of applying sindoor symbolises marriage in Hindu tradition, and by doing this, the accused sought to deceive the victim even further, based on which he then sexually exploited her. Thirdly, the Muslim accused harassed her and threatened to make her photos and videos viral. These exploitations were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating a Hindu woman because of her faith. The target was not the victim as an individual, but her Hindu identity. The specific focus on her Hindu identity in the commission of these acts highlights the religious hatred underlying the crime, making it a religiously motivated offence. The presence of religious impersonation, the targeting of a Hindu woman, the misuse of trust based on Hindu identity, and the subsequent sexual exploitation collectively meet the threshold for a hate crime against Hindus. The behaviour demonstrates hostility towards Hindu identity by exploiting it as a tool for control and harm. Since the perpetrator's actions were rooted in religious animosity, this case has been added to the tracker. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. The earliest date mentioned is 8 March 2023, 2025, when the accused came to her house. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as 8 March 2023, though the media reported the incident emerged later.