Muslim man pretends to be Hindu, wears saffron robe and applies tilak to trap a Dalit minor, abducts her on the pretext of marriage

Case ID : ea7ab37 | Location : Begusarai, Bihar, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 4 October, 2023

Case ID : ea7ab37

Begusarai, Bihar, India

4 October, 2023

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Wears symbols of Hinduism

Case Summary

In Begusarai, Bihar, a Muslim youth named Mohammad Asif trapped a Dalit girl in a love affair by pretending to be a Hindu and then kidnapped her on the pretext of marrying her. The accused, as per reports, used to wear a saffron robe and a tilak on his forehead to appear to be a Hindu saint. The Dalit girl of Saronja village of Birpur police station area had been missing since October 5, 2023. The family members of the victim filed a case against Mohammad Asif (also spelt as Ashraf in many reports). The villagers also gathered and organised a panchayat regarding the kidnapping of the Dalit girl.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

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. What gives this case a distinct religious angle is that the Muslim perpetrator actively hid his religion and pretended to be a Hindu to ensnare the Hindu woman. He donned Hindu religious symbols like tilak and a saffron robe to religiously deceive the victim. Since the religious motive of the crime is evident from these facts, this case has been documented as a hate crime.