Muslim man pretends to be Hindu to lure Hindu woman, establishes sexual relationship, then marries Muslim woman

Case ID : f5a73cb | Location : Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 18 May, 2023

Case ID : f5a73cb

Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India

18 May, 2023

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Raped and/or murdered after Hindu woman finds out real identity

Case Summary

In the Kankar Kheda police station precinct of UP's Meerut, a man named Aamir posed as Amit and raped a Hindu woman for over seven months (a Patrika report, however, states seven years). On May 19, 2023, the victim lodged a complaint, on the basis which the accused was arrested. The woman, who had separated from her ex-husband about seven years prior, met "Amit", a local of Hapur Road, while working at a hospital near Garh Road. The two soon became friends and drew closer. The woman claims that the accused repeatedly sexually assaulted her under the guise of marriage. As the victim asked to get married, he continued to say no. Aamir, the accused, married a Muslim woman in the interim. The victim alleged that she got to know about Amit’s real identity through a colleague at the hospital. The two had a rift after the victim learnt his real identity. Accused Aamir barged into the victim’s home and tried to rape her. The family members of the victim gathered as they heard the screams of the victim. Following this, the accused fled the spot.

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. In this case, a non-Hindu man concealed his religious identity and pretended to be a Hindu to lure a Hindu woman. Since the religious motive of the crime is evident from the fact that the man pretended to be a Hindu to trap a Hindu woman, this case has been documented as a hate crime.