Tara Shahdeo, a national level shooter from Jharkhand, had made it to the headlines of leading newspapers from India. The reason for her finding a place in the dailies though was unfortunately not related to winning a sports event or getting recognised by the government for her contributions. Tara Shahdeo in 2014 had created a sensation by claiming that her husband had married her by hiding his religion and was hell bent on converting her to Islam. According to the FIR filed by her in a police station in Ranchi in August 2014, Raqibul Hasan Khan had changed his identity to that of Ranjit Kumar Kohli in order to marry her. Once the marriage took place Raqibul Hasan Khan alongwith his family members used to keep her locked in the house where she was threatened and physically abused to change her religion. The FIR, by Tara Shahdeo, was filed just a month after the marriage had taken place. This was one of the first famous cases of the Love Jihad which had made it to the headlines from the state of Jharkhand. Tara Shahdeo thereafter had filed a divorce petition in January 2017, the Ranchi family court finally granted her divorce yesterday on June 26th.
The Ranchi family court Principal Judge B K Gautam gave the order for divorce yesterday, he pointed out that the evidences provided by Tara Shahdeo were conclusive and revealed that cruelties had indeed been inflicted on her. The Judge also pointed out that nobody has the right to force a person to change his or her religion. Tara’s advocate had pointed out that Tara had got to know the religion of Khan’s family only after she was taken to his house post the ceremony. Khan’s family had brought in a Muslim religious head to the house to “solemnise the marriage under Islamic traditions”. Tara had protested against this following which she was beaten and subjected to other types of cruelty.
Tara Shahdeo also came from an influential family which made the matter even more serious. If national level players and girls coming from affluent families are not safe from this web of love jihad, then little can be done in the case of common citizens. The first reaction of media houses and opposition had been to brand the whole case as a fabrication and a plot of RSS and VHP to raise the issue of Love Jihad. This judgement given by the Ranchi family court will be a tight slap on the faces of these media houses that are already running to save their faces after numerous instances of Muslim youth in Kerala have emerged where they were offered money to lure and wed Hindu girls. Kerala chief minister had also in some ways or the other acknowledged that Love Jihad indeed exists and it is a problem today. The people who used to scoff at the mention of this phenomenon today need to be ashamed and apologise to the society, Tara Shahdeo has finally found justice and we hope every victim of the Love Jihad does in the future. Awareness and knowledge of this blatant attack on Hindus must be condemned and the people who commit or incite others to commit such ghastly deeds must be severely reprimanded.