Muslim man poses as Hindu and sexually assaults Hindu woman, blackmails her to convert to Islam and marry him

Case ID : f5a73a6 | Location : Ranchi, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 14 June, 2023

Case ID : f5a73a6

Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

14 June, 2023

Muslim man poses as Hindu and sexually assaults Hindu woman, blackmails her to convert to Islam and marry him

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Rape for refusal to convert

Blackmailed to convert

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Case Summary

The Ranchi police have arrested Tanveer Akhtar Khan alias Yash from Araria in Bihar who was accused by model Manvi Raj Singh of forced conversion and rape. Model and actress Manvi Raj Singh, a native of Bhagalpur in Bihar, registered a complaint at the Versova police station in Mumbai against Tanveer Akhtar Khan. The case was then transferred to Ranchi as the crime took place there. He deceived her by lying about his real identity and told her his name was Yash. She mentioned that he repeatedly assaulted her sexually and after his true identity was discovered, he continued to intimidate her into marriage and conversion to Islam. She met the offender while she was in Ranchi at a modelling agency named ‘Yash Models Agency’. He had molested her numerous times since 2021. He threatened her with grave repercussions if she alerted anyone. Tanveer Akhtar one day gave her sedatives and took objectionable pictures with her. The woman said the accused had also exerted pressure on her to go to Bangkok for shooting and when she refused, he blackmailed to put her graphic images on social media and make them viral. The victim said he sent some objectionable photos to her brother and mother and she decided to end her life but was dissuaded from doing so by an acquaintance. When she left Ranchi and moved to Mumbai, he followed her there and continued to harass and threaten her. When she disagreed to convert to Islam, he also tried to kill her by strangulating, she alleged. Manvi Raj Singh released a video narrating the entire ordeal, where she said, “He may kill me, but I am Hindu and will remain a Hindu, I will never become a Muslim and will never marry a Muslim. Prime Minister and Chief Minister save me from this monster."

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The first factor that 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. 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. Further, he forced the Hindu woman to convert to Islam before marrying him and per Islamic rituals. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. Thirdly, the Muslim perpetrator sexually assaulted the Hindu victim to convert to Islam. Since the religious motive of the crime is evident from these facts, this case has been documented as a hate crime. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. As the case may be, in such cases, the non-Hindu man forces himself sexually on the Hindu woman when she refuses his advances and pressures to convert her religion. The rape of the woman is often seen as either a punishment for the woman refusing to convert. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The fourth component in this case which made it worthy of being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime is that the Muslim accused blackmailed the Hindu victim to convert to Islam. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.