Muslim man poses as Hindu to trap a Hindu woman and and marries her, forces her to convert to Islam and read Namaz
Surat, Gujarat, India 
15 January, 2023
Case Summary
A local court in Surat denied bail to a 51-year-old man called Muhammad Samat Ali Sheikh who had disguised himself as Mukesh Mahavir Gupta and married a Hindu girl from the Dindili region. Sheikh claimed to be a railway employee. After a few months of marriage, the victim Hindu woman realised that her husband was Muslim. She was subsequently forced to convert to Islam and perform Namaz. The victim then filed a complaint at the Dindoli police station of Surat. The police filed an FIR against the accused and charged him under the Freedom of Religion Act and other relevant sections of the IPC.
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 married her before revealing his real identity to the victim. The Muslim perpetrator targeted the victim specifically owing to her religious identity and after that, tried to forcefully change her religious identity to Islam pointing towards a crime with his motivations being driven by religious hate.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
