Hindu girl befriended and molested by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Case ID : ea34c2c | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 15 May, 2025

Case ID : ea34c2c

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

15 May, 2025

Hindu girl befriended and molested by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Pattern of targeting Hindu women

Name Changed

Case Summary

In the Hiranagar area of Indore City, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu girl was befriended and subsequently molested by a Muslim man named Sohail Pathan, who had posed as a Hindu man named Rahul Sharma. As per news reports, the two remained friends for a while, during which the accused portrayed himself as a Hindu. On the day of the incident, the girl met Sohail at a cafe in the evening, where he began behaving inappropriately and molested her. When she protested, the confrontation led to the revelation of his true identity. Shocked and frightened, the girl contacted the Hindu Jagran Manch for assistance, who, in turn, along with the victim, went to the Hiranagar police station and filed a complaint against Sohail. The police registered a case and assured them that the accused would be arrested. However, members of the Hindu organisation caught hold of Sohail and handed him over to the police; thereafter, the girl formally lodged her complaint. A report by Punjab Kesari highlighted that the police found numerous conversations, photographs, and videos of Sohail with other women.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu, and the tertiary categories selected are- Name changed and Pattern of targeting Hindu women. 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 perpetrator, a Muslim man named Sohail, deliberately concealed his religious identity and assumed a Hindu identity to befriend a Hindu woman, and subsequently molested her. The religious motivation behind this crime is evident from the calculated deception employed to entrap the Hindu girl. Such actions clearly reflect bias and malicious intent towards the victim’s Hindu faith. By misrepresenting his identity, the perpetrator exploited her trust and targeted her under false pretences. Deceiving someone by falsifying one’s religious identity is a hate crime, as it is driven by hostility or prejudice against the victim’s religion. This not only constitutes a profound breach of personal trust but also represents a calculated exploitation of religious identity to facilitate the crime. Such conduct goes beyond personal betrayal; it demonstrates targeted animosity or prejudice against the victim’s Hindu identity. The gravity of this offence is heightened by the fact that the accused followed a pattern wherein he first religiously profiled his victims and then deceived them by pretending to share their faith, as evidenced by the information police found on the accused's mobile. This shows that this case is not an isolated incident but part of a broader trend where identity concealment is used as a strategic tool to entrap Hindu women. 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 was evidently aware 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, often with coercion 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. This is why this case has been included in the tracker, as it exemplifies a clear instance of religiously motivated hate and exploitation.