Hindu woman lured by a Muslim man pretending to be Hindu; trafficked to Saudi Arabia, gang-raped and forced to convert

Case ID : f664987 | Location : Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 31 December, 2018

Case ID : f664987

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

31 December, 2018

Hindu woman lured by a Muslim man pretending to be Hindu; trafficked to Saudi Arabia, gang-raped and forced to convert

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Blackmailed to convert

Case Summary

In Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman from Bengaluru was lured into a love trap by a Muslim man named Wasim from Rajasthan. Wasim posed as a Hindu to entrap the woman. He then physically tortured her and forced her to convert to Islam. This incident took place in the Kotwali Dehat police station area of Saharanpur district. On March 21, 2025, a Hindu woman belonging to the Brahmin community filed a complaint with the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP). In her complaint, she stated that she is an orphan, having lost both her parents long ago. To support herself, she started a beauty parlour in Bangalore, Karnataka, where she had been living. In 2019, the victim was contacted on Instagram by an individual using the profile name Raju Rathore. Over time, they began communicating regularly and developed a connection. Within two years, the accused, who introduced himself as Raju Rathore, entrapped the victim in a deceptive relationship. During this period, he lied about working in Saudi Arabia and, in 2021, proposed marriage to her. He further misled the victim by promising her a job, marriage, and financial security through opening a parlour in Saudi Arabia. Trusting his words, the victim sold her house and other properties in Bangalore before travelling to Saudi Arabia. However, upon arrival, she discovered that the person she believed to be Raju Rathore was actually Wasim. Once the victim reached the Islamic country, Wasim revealed his true identity and turned abusive. He seized her passport, other documents, and all the money she had brought along. Allegedly, Wasim then subjected the victim to three months of sexual assault, during which he also recorded obscene photos and videos. He continued to exploit her through blackmail, threatening to release the videos if she resisted. After three months, having taken all her money and repeatedly assaulted her, Wasim discarded the victim, calling her useless, and sent her back to Bangalore. However, even after she returned to India, Wasim continued to threaten her from Saudi Arabia, warning her against taking any action. Out of fear, the victim remained silent for a long time. In 2024, the victim received a call from Wasim's father, Salim, who lured her to Saharanpur with false promises of accepting her as his daughter-in-law. Believing his assurances, the victim once again fell into the trap and travelled to Wasim’s village, Ghanakhandi, in the Kotwali Dehat police station area of Saharanpur. On 4th November 2024, Salim and his associates had documents prepared on a ₹10 stamp paper falsely identifying the victim as Wasim’s wife. They even provided her with a room in their home, seemingly to execute their larger conspiracy. The victim later stated that Wasim’s entire family harboured deep-seated hatred against her from the very beginning. On 12th December 2024, while she was staying at their house, they began pressuring her to convert to Islam. When she refused to comply, the family grew hostile. The very next day, on 13th December, Wasim’s relatives Farman and Piru gang-raped her. When she resisted, she was brutally beaten. On 14th December, the victim reported the crime to the local police. However, the authorities allegedly ignored her complaint, refusing even to conduct a medical examination despite her repeated pleas. Emboldened by the police’s inaction, the accused escalated their attacks. On 4th February 2025, they broke into the Hindu victim’s house and launched a violent assault on her. During this attack, she was stabbed and sustained serious injuries. After committing the assault, the attackers fled while issuing more threats. The victim again approached the police, but they refused to take her complaint seriously. Frustrated by the lack of action, she appealed to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), demanding strict legal action against Wasim and his family. Meanwhile, Hindu activist Vijaykant Chauhan urged the authorities to deliver justice. He warned of launching a movement if justice is denied.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added as a religiously motivated hate crime under two prime categories of the tracker. The first is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu, and within this, the tertiary category selected is- Name changed. 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 sub-category selected is- Blackmailed to convert. 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. The second category under which this case has been placed is- Predatory Proselytization. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. This case qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime because the Hindu woman was deliberately targeted for her religious identity by a Muslim man who concealed his real identity to initiate the relationship. Wasim, lured the Hindu woman pretending to be a Hindu named Raju Rathaur. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs, and this is why this case has been added here. Further, he exploited the victim’s vulnerability and trust to manipulate, traffic, and sexually assault her. The coercion did not stop at physical abuse — the attempt to force her to convert to Islam, and the violent attack with a knife by Wasim’s family demonstrate clear religious hostility. The objective was not merely sexual exploitation but the forced erasure of her Hindu identity through conversion — a classic case of predatory proselytisation driven by religious malice. The systematic abuse, threats, and blackmail rooted in religious animosity highlight this as a targeted crime against the victim’s religious identity, making it a hate crime. Additionally, the pattern of deceit, trafficking to a Muslim country, and subsequent conversion pressure reflects the larger trend of targeting Hindu women in such crimes under the guise of relationships. Disclaimer: Since the victim's ordeal began in 2019 but no specific date has been mentioned, January 1, 2025, has been used as the incident date for documentation purposes in the tracker. This ensures consistency while recording the case.