Lucknow: Love jihad, a term that was coined by Hindutva groups has become so popular that some States decided to draft a law against it. However, a report by UP Police contradicted the claims made by the right-wing ideologues.
In UP, chief minister Yogi Adityanath- led BJP and other rightwing Hindu groups have been claiming the rise of “love jihad” cases. However, when all police stations in the State were asked to report suspicious cases, an eight-member SIT that was formed in the month of September received only 14 cases.
SIT findings
After investigating these cases, the SIT found that eight out of 14 cases were consensual, The Wire reported.
Out of eight cases, six couple got married following Islamic rites. After Nikah, police treated husbands as accused persons. Cops tried to find out whether the women were forced to change religion.
However, during the SIT investigation, the women clearly said that they were not forced and their relationship is consensual.
Other six cases
Six out of the 14 cases were found suspicious. In one of these cases, accused pretend to be a Hindu and after marriage, he asked his wife to convert to Islam.
In another case, the girl told that the boy introduced himself as “Babu”. Later, he took her to a mosque and asked her to convert to Islam.
The report was submitted to Kanpur inspector general of police Mohit Agarwal.
Law against Love Jihad
Recently, the Yogi Adityanath government has decided to bring in a stringent legislation against ‘love jihad’ cases.
The Home Department had sent a proposal to the Department of Law in this regard.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh has also said the state would soon have a law against ‘love jihad’.
Chouhan’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra has said non-bailable charges would be applicable in cases of ‘love jihad’ in Madhya Pradesh.
“We are making preparations to introduce Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2020 in Assembly. It will provide for 5 years of rigorous imprisonment. We are also proposing that such crimes be declared a cognizable and non-bailable offence,” Narottam Mishra said.