The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has always been a proactive administration when it has come to enact the law of the land. From stopping rioters running amuck during the anti-CAA riots to penalizing them heavily to now arresting the first perpetrator under the new anti-Conversion Bill—the monk CM has been at the forefront of making UP a crime-free state.
Based on a complaint from Tikaram, a resident of Sharif Nagar village in Devarniya, the case was registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the anti-conversion law. The complainant had accused Owais Ahmad, a resident of the same village, of trying to convert his daughter through “allurement”, the police said. According to the complaint, Tikaram’s daughter and Ahmad studied together in Class 12.
As is the case in most Love-Jihad instances, Ahmad started pestering Tikaram’s daughter to undergo ‘religious-conversion’ to convert into Islam so that he could perform ‘nikah’ with her. However, when the girl refused, an enraged Ahmad threatened to kidnap her, according to the girl’s father in the complaint.
As soon as the police lodged the complaint, Ahmad went into hiding and when caught, he said, ‘he feared getting shot in an encounter’. When asked about it, additional superintendent of police (rural) Sansaar Singh said, “He may be under this impression, but police never intended to do this as he is not a history sheeter. We were only searching for him and several teams were deployed in neighbouring districts as well. He was produced before a magistrate who sent him to judicial custody. We will now record the statement of the complainant and the witnesses and complete the investigation in this case.”
“This is the first arrest under the new law. Accused Owais Ahmad was arrested from the Richha railway gate in the Bahedi area on Wednesday. He was produced before a local court and was sent to 14 days judicial custody,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, Bareilly, Rajesh Kumar Pandey said.
Reported by TFI earlier, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier indicated his government’s commitment to bringing a stringent law against the menace of ‘love jihad’. The Chief Minister had also taken a cue from the very recent ruling of the Allahabad High Court, which stated that religious conversion just for the purpose of marriage was not acceptable. “Conversion of religion to Islam, in the present set of facts, of the girls without their faith and belief in Islam and at the instance of the boys, solely for the purpose of marriage, cannot be said to be a valid conversion to Islam religion,” Justice Tripathi of the Allahabad High Court said.
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Read more: ‘Ram Naam Satya Hai kiyatra ab nilaknewalihai,’ Yogi vows to take tough action on Love Jihad menace
As a result, the Uttar Pradesh Governor, Anandiben Patel on 28 November had given assent to the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, against forcible or fraudulent religious conversions. The law provides for imprisonment of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of Rs 50,000 under different categories.
‘Love jihad’ has sprung into public discourse once again, ever since Tanishq jewels took to virtue-signal Hindus and paint a highly distorted image of what interfaith marriages into certain households looked like for non-Muslim, particularly Hindu women.