Under this law, 86 people have been made accused in 16 FIRs registered so far. But in many cases, the police have to face trouble in the courts. The court rulings, in Moradabad, Bareilly, Bijnor and now in the Muzaffarnagar cases, has given a hard blow to the advocates of this law,TCN reports.
By Aas Mohammad Kaif, TwoCircles.net
The stories of harassment in the name of the new law by the Uttar Pradesh government on love jihad are now dying in the investigations. State agencies have been accused of using the to target and harassing people of particular religion. Under this law, 86 people have been made accused in 16 FIRs registered so far. But in many cases, the police have to face trouble in the courts. The court rulings, in the Moradabad, Bareilly, Bijnor and now in the Muzaffarnagar cases, has given a hard blow to the advocates of this law. After rulings in courts, the cases of love jihad cases being registered have also declined.
Amidst all this, the Uttar Pradesh government, while filing its reply in the High Court, has said that the new conversion law is not meant to target any particular religion. However, among the 86 accused, 79 belong to this particular religion. In all the four cases in which the court has shown mirror to the Uttar Pradesh government, the action taken by the police has been described as mendacious.
The first case is from Moradabad where ‘Rashid’ got ‘Pinky’ on the order of the court. It is informed that the girl from Moradabad, who was forcibly being asked to abort by the Bajrang Dal activists, has been handed over to her husband Rashid on the court’s order. Rashid and his brother were also released from jail after Pinky deposed in court. Pinky is now at her in-law’s house. At the Kanth police station in Moradabad district, the mother had first complained to the police that her daughter was being converted to other religion by implicating her in ‘Love Jihad’. After this, the police arrested the accused and sent them to jail, but there was a new twist in the case when the police, after a court order, allowed the girl to stay at her in-law’s house. The 22-year-old woman was first sent to the shelter home by the administration. Bajrang Dal activists were accused of forcibly asking her to abort.
On December 5, Bala Devi, a resident of Bijnor, lodged an FIR under the new law in the Kantha police station area of Moradabad. She accused two people of converting her daughter on the pretext of marrying. Both the youths were detained by the police after the FIR was registered and the girl was sent to Nari Niketan in Moradabad.
Pinky was a resident of village Ganj in Bijnor. She married Rashid, a resident of Kant tehsil of Moradabad, 6 months ago on July 24 in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. On December 5, Pinky came to the Magistrate in Moradabad to register her marriage. In the meantime, Bajrang Dal activists caught them on the way. The Bajrang Dal, making false accusations, handed Pinky along with her husband Rashid to the Kanth police. Pinky alleged that due to pressure from Bajrang Dal, the police registered a case by taking written statement from her mother. Pinky, in her statement before the Magistrate, said that she is an adult, ‘She is 22 years old and she married in Dehradun in July in her own free will and now she wants to live with her husband’s family instead of living in Nari Niketan’.
Pinky told the court that she had converted from her religion and now she wants to spend her life with Rashid’s family. After this, the case of Love Jihad registered against Abrar, who hails from Faridpur tehsil of Bareilly also turned out to be false. A student of nursing in Faridpur had alleged that Abrar, along with two of his colleagues, stopped her at gunpoint and forced her to convert. The accused had been following the student for several months. Not only this, when she married a boy of her religion, the accused also tried to break the marriage by going to her in-laws. It was also alleged that when the student denied, the accused threatened to kill her entire family, which caused the student to panic. The complaint of this entire case was made by the student at Faridpur police station and the police registered a case of Love Jihad on this basis. Police acted on the student’s written statement. Simultaneously, the action was also speeded up for the arrest of the accused. The case was of January 1.
According to Bareilly SSP Rohit Sajwan, on the day the student reported the incident, accused Abrar was not present on the spot but was in Bareilly, several kilometres from the incident. According to the Faridpur police, the case is being closed on the basis of his location and primary investigation as well as the statements of witnesses. Action will be taken against the complainant under section 182 for making false allegations. According to the police, they are giving a clean chit to the three accused youths. Another love jihad case of Muzaffarnagar has been found to be false. The government itself said in the court that there is no evidence of love jihad in this case.
As a matter of fact, Muzaffarnagar resident labour-contractor Akshay Kumar Tyagi filed a complaint on 29 November 2020, against Nadeem, a Muslim resident of Haridwar, alleging that Nadeem wants to convert his wife by trapping her in his web. Akshay said that Nadeem is his associate and they work together. He used to come to his house in Muzaffarnagar and he ensnared his wife in love. “Nadeem was pressurizing my wife to convert her on the pretext of marriage,” he said. After this, a case was filed against Nadeem and Salman at Mansurpur police station in Muzaffarnagar under the new controversial law. Muzaffarnagar police had filed a case under sections 3 and 5 of the new ordinance Love Jihad Act and sections of IPC for intimidation and criminal conspiracy.
In response, Nadeem had filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court last month to quash the FIR. After which the Allahabad High Court, while hearing, had stayed the arrest of accused Nadeem. The High Court had also directed not to take any coercive action against him. The UP government was asked to investigate and reply to the High Court.
On Thursday, on behalf of the Yogi government of Uttar Pradesh, Joint Director Awadhesh Pandey filed an affidavit in the Allahabad High Court. It said that no such evidence was found by the investigating officer, so that a case could be registered against these two accused under the Love Jihad Act.
In the midst of all this, the girl in Bijnor, who became Shaista from Sangeeta, will not be bothered by her family nor can a case of Love Jihad be registered against her. The High Court has given a very important verdict under the right to choose the life partner by the Sangeeta-turned-Shaista of Bijnor. In this decision, Sangeeta has been given financial protection of Rs 3 lakh by her Muslim husband. Sangeeta has now become Shaista. The court said that Mehr amount was less. Sangeeta’s family was constantly complaining to the police accusing her husband and her in-laws of religious conversion. Following this, she herself went to court. Apart from this, Justice Saral Shrivastava also said that both are adults and the family of the girl should not interfere in their lives anymore.
Congress’s Uttar Pradesh women vice president, Urusha Rana, says that the same is happening in this case, which was already expected. This law was not implemented with a clear intention. The Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh wants to imprison love in a cage. He is increasing misunderstandings in the name of Love Jihad. His motive is division of the society. He wants to make a disjunction among the hearts. Now this is happening or the weak knots of law are fraying.