Muslim youth poses as a Hindu, marries a Hindu single mother as per Hindu customs, then reveals identity and forces her to convert. Divorces her and forces Nikah-Halala
Bhiwandi, Maharashtra, India 
25 January, 2020
Case Summary
In Bhiwandi city of Maharashtra, one Siraj Qureshi pretended to be a Hindu named Raju to befriend a Hindu woman on Facebook and lure her into marriage according to Hindu customs. After a few days, he revealed his real identity as a Muslim and converted the victim to Islam. Siraj was already married and the father of four children. The Brahmin woman was a single mother of a 7-year-old daughter when she met 'Raju' on social media. He came closer to her by helping her financially and proposing marriage to her. In January 2020, he took her to Gunjan Lodge and established a physical relationship. On 26 January 2020, the woman got married to 'Raju' as per Hindu rituals in a building near Dhamankar Naka. A year later, Raju himself revealed that he was a Muslim. Siraj got the Brahmin woman converted to Islam and forcibly did Nikah in May 2022. In less than a year, Siraj divorced the woman by writing on a paper that if she did not live with his first wife, she would be thrown out of the property. The matter reached the police when the woman called Siraj on August 2, 2023, and he started abusing her. Siraj also started asking the woman for Halala. The woman complained about him to Bhiwandi Police and lodged an FIR against Siraj Qureshi. Taking action, the police arrested Siraj.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
In this case, there are two distinct sub-categories which demonstrate that the Muslim perpetrator committed the crime while harbouring a bias against the Hindu faith. Firstly, the religious motive of the Muslim perpetrator becomes apparent from the fact that he actively hid his religious identity to deceive the Hindu victim and married her as per Hindu customs. 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 second component in this case which makes it worthy of being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime is that the Muslim perpetrator started forcing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam after marriage and re-marry him as per Islamic rituals. He also compelled her to follow Islamic practices like halala against her will. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for Halala, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
