Married Muslim youth poses as Hindu to marry Hindu woman, then force-feeds her beef and assaults her for refusing
Lakhimpur, Assam, India 
11 August, 2023
Case Summary
From the Lakhimpur district of Assam, a married Muslim man and father of three children, Gulzar Ahmed, trapped a Hindu girl by pretending to be a Hindu. The crimes on the victim started after he married her in 2016. After their marriage, Gulzar Ahmed took her home, where he revealed his true identity to the victim. She was subjected to torture by the accused and his family. Gulzar Ahmed physically attacked her with plastic pipes when she refused to eat beef, which she was forced to consume. The woman was subjected to more torture after giving birth to her son. She once attempted to file a complaint against Gulzar Ahmed and his family at the Khelmati outpost. Gulzar, however, arrived at the police station and brought her back, promising not to torment her in the future in front of the officers. The victim claimed that Gulzar had severely beaten her with a helmet immediately after. The victim finally lodged a complaint with the local police and appealed for help. August 13, the National Commission for Women took cognisance of the incident, directing DGP Assam for a comprehensive investigation in a time-bound manner.
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. Further, when his real identity was revealed, he inflicted torture and threatened the Hindu victim to convert to Islam. He also breached the girl's religious practices by forcefully feeding her beef. Beef has specific religious connotations and when it is force-fed, it is a marker of forced conversion. Further, the victim says she was assaulted when she refused to consume beef - an act perpetrator for forced conversion of the Hindu victim. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force 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 pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. Since the religious motive of the crime is evident from the above-stated facts, this case has been documented as a hate crime.
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
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
