Hindu woman raped, her obscene video made viral on internet; Muslim accused was living in the village pretending to be Hindu

Case ID : f6647ec | Location : Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 25 February, 2025

Case ID : f6647ec

Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

25 February, 2025

Hindu woman raped, her obscene video made viral on internet; Muslim accused was living in the village pretending to be Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A Hindu woman in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, was raped by three Muslim men from her village. A video of the act was also leaked on the internet by the perpetrators. Reports indicate that the main accused, identified as Raj alias Rahul, is reportedly a Rohingya Muslim who had been living in the village under a false Hindu identity. The victim worked in a sugarcane field owned by a Muslim man in the village. It is said that three Muslim youths from the same village raped her while she was peeling sugarcane, filmed the assault, and later used the video to blackmail her. Under threat of making the video public, the accused repeatedly sexually assaulted her for three months. The victim alleged that Raj alias Rahul, who worked for Lukman—a resident of village Nirmani—took her to Lukman’s sugarcane field, where he raped her and filmed the act. Later, along with Lukman and Irshad, he repeatedly gang-raped her, using the video to threaten and control her. On February 26, Raj alias Rahul once again ordered the woman to meet him in the fields. When she refused, he became violent, assaulted her, and subsequently made the explicit video public. After the video surfaced, the victim confided in her husband, and together, they approached Shahpur police to file a complaint. However, the police allegedly delayed taking action and initially sent the couple back. However, after the case gained attention, Prahlad Pahuja, Mandal President of Hindu Yuva Vahini, and Swami Yashveer Ji Maharaj, the founder of Yoga Sadhana Kendra, met the victim and assured her of justice. Swami Yashveer Ji Maharaj also urged the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) to take swift action against the accused, warning of protests if justice was delayed. Following this, local police registered a case against the three accused based on the victim's complaint. The prime accused, Raj alias Rahul, was arrested, while the other two remained absconding.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under two prime categories. The first is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. 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. The second category selected here is- Attacked not resulting in death and under this, the sub-category selected is- Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. This case contains multiple religious markers that clearly establish it as a religiously motivated hate crime. Each element points to the targeted nature of the crime, showing that the victim was not randomly attacked but was chosen based on her Hindu identity. A strong religious marker is that the accused was a Rohingya Muslim who had infiltrated the village by changing his name and concealing his religious identity. The fact that he was living under a false Hindu identity raises questions about his intent and whether he was involved in a larger pattern of religiously motivated crimes. His calculated efforts to blend in while specifically preying on a Hindu woman highlight the communal and religious bias behind his actions. The fact that the perpetrator deliberately pretended to be a Hindu is undeniable proof that the victim’s faith was not incidental—she was religiously profiled and specifically targeted because of her Hindu identity. If religion had no role in the crime, there would have been no reason for the accused to conceal his real religious identity. His deception was not random; it was a calculated move to integrate himself within the Hindu community, making it easier for him to earn their trust and ultimately target his prey. By masquerading as a Hindu, he ensured that his actions would not immediately raise suspicion, allowing him to manipulate the situation to his advantage. Further, his choice of the victim was not arbitrary—it was dictated by her being Hindu, making this a clear case of religiously motivated targeting.