How Journalists And 'Bhagwa Love Trap' Conspiracy Theorists Falsely Communalised A Suicide Case Involving A Muslim Couple

A woman’s body was found from her rented accommodation in Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh late evening on 19 June.

Preliminary information revealed that the woman, a Muslim named Muskan, had eloped and married a Hindu man named Deepak a few years ago. 

A section of social media users promptly shared the news of her death as a case of ‘bhagwa love trap’, insinuating that the man had trapped the woman into a relationship for her conversion to Hinduism and then killed her.

Police, however, have found that the woman had separated from Deepak a year ago, and had been living with a man named Mohammed Faizan since then.

See the tweets falsely communalising the death and giving it the 'bhagwa love trap' colour below.

Among those who insinuated murder by Deepak or 'bhagwa love trap' include Zakir Ali Tyagi, a journalist with controversial website The Wire; Kashif Arsalaan, who describes himself as a Muslim activist and has more than 34,000 followers on Twitter; Shahin Khan, who has 46,000 followers on Twitter and describes herself as a student; Sadaf Afreen, who has more than 61,000 followers on Twitter and describes herself as a journalist; Kavish Aziz, who has 58,000 followers on Twitter and describes herself as a journalist; and Ashraf Hussain, who has 384,000 followers on Twitter and describes himself also as a journalist.

The station house officer (SHO) of Kotwali Nagar Police in Aligarh told Swarajya that prima facie, the woman’s death is a case of suicide. 

He said that Faizan surrendered in the court yesterday (22 June) and told the court that Muskan had been pressuring him for nikah (marriage as per Islamic rituals) while he had been evading it. 

The officer said that as per Faizan's landlord, Faizan left the house and went to a relative on the morning of 19 June. Muskan’s body, hanging from the ceiling, was spotted by the landlord around 10 pm. 

The SHO, Ramvakeel Singh, told Swarajya that the landlord grew suspicious after hearing no sound from Faizan and Muskan’s room the entire day.

A little before 10 pm, he lightly knocked at the gate, which opened easily. Inside the room, he found Muskan hanging from the ceiling.

He immediately called up the police.

The ‘bhagwa love trap’ theory was triggered by initial suspicions of Muskan’s parents.

On the morning of 20 June, when they were informed by the police about their daughter’s death, they told the media that Deepak used to beat up Muskan and had most probably killed her.

They also gave a written statement stating their suspicions to the Kotwali Nagar Police, which can be read below.

The SHO, on the other hand, told Swarajya that Muskan’s parents had not been in touch with her for several years, and were unaware of the development in her life that she had left Deepak and moved in with Faizan. 

The SHO said that in 2019, Muskan, when she was still a minor, eloped with Deepak, who lived in her neighbourhood.

Her parents gave a complaint of kidnapping against Deepak at a local thana, after which the police filed a case of kidnapping (IPC section 363 and 366), recovered Muskan and produced her in the court.

Muskan told the court that she had eloped and was not kidnapped, which resulted in the release of Deepak on bail from judicial custody. After some time, they eloped again and began living together. It’s not clear if they formally married, the SHO said.

As per preliminary investigation, Muskan left Deepak about 2.5 years ago and moved in with Faizan, also a native of Aligarh.

“They lived in several places including Delhi. In their current house, in which her body was found, they moved a couple of months ago,” the SHO said.

This colony is named Super Colony and is located in the Bhujpura area of Aligarh.

Circle Officer Abhay Kumar Pandey told Swarajya that Faizan is currently in judicial custody on the charges of abetment to suicide. He said that Deepak might also be questioned during further investigation.

The officer said that the claims of ‘bhagwa love trap’ in the case are nonsense.

The officer also released a video statement, which can be seen below:

The Propaganda Of 'Bhagwa Love Trap'

For some years now, a conspiracy theory has been circulating among Muslim groups that Hindu men are targeting Muslim women for relationships in order to make them leave Islam, and such men are especially trained for the purpose by Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

The conspiracy theorists call it ‘bhagwa love trap’, where ‘bhagwa’ means saffron in English, a reference to Hindus.

Promoters of this propaganda include prominent clerics, supporters of certain political parties, influencers, journalists and anonymous social media accounts. 

Senior cleric Khalil-ur-Rahman Sajjad Nomani, spokesperson of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, is a prominent name spreading it, but is not the only one. 

In various speeches, he has made sensational claims to push the narrative. Some of the unfounded claims made by Nomani in his speeches (watch here) are:

- Eight lakh Muslim women have become “murtad” (apostate, one who leaves Islam) after marrying Hindu men. Nomani has so far not cited any evidence of the claim

- RSS has trained and created a large team of men under a deep conspiracy for this purpose

- Hindu men undergo training of three to four months for ‘bhagwa love trap’ where they learn chaste Urdu and use of phrases such as ‘tashreef rakhiye’, 'khairiyat hai’, ‘aapki duaien hain’ and ‘mashallah’

- A Hindu man who becomes successful in getting at least one Muslim woman leave Islam gets a cheque of Rs 2.5 lakh, a house and a job.

- Billions of dollars have been allocated on a project aimed at snatching Islam from Muslims.

Besides Nomani, several clerics in their "takrir" (public discourse) given to a wholly Muslim audience, have been found spreading this conspiracy theory, warning Muslim women of “jahannum” (hell) when they die if they leave Islam for marriage (watch here).

Last month, an organisation named ‘Ehsaas Foundation’ took out a street rally in Nagpur holding banners of ‘save Muslim girls’ and ‘bhagwa love trap’ (watch here). The banners, held by men in skull caps, had images of burqa-clad women carrying a copy of Quran. The accompanying text said, “Save daughters from becoming apostates” (translated).

In May, a major misinformation campaign was run on social media where a forged letter attributed to RSS, carrying guidelines for Hindu men to trap Muslim women, was widely circulated. The fake letter vowed to provide a 15-day training programme to get Muslim women convert to Hinduism through marriages.

The letter was circulated using the hashtags #Bhagwalovetrap and #bhagwa_love_trap (read the details here). 

Multiple YouTube and Instagram accounts are also operating in the name of ‘bhagwa love trap’, where they share videos of vigilantes harassing couples and friends with fawning captions, 'takrir' by clerics asking Muslim parents to stop their daughters’ college education or plain misinformation to establish their case.

Street Impact Of The Conspiracy Theory

Over the past year, scores of cases have emerged in public where vigilantes from the Muslim community have been captured on camera harassing and physically assaulting Hindu men and abusing Muslim women for hanging out together, despite the women’s consent. Read some of those cases in this earlier report by Swarajya.