Updated: November 24, 2020 11:27:54 am
In three of the 14 cases, the SIT found that police had filed closure reports after Hindu women, all over the age of 18, had made statements in favor of the defendants, stating that they had married Muslim men or had been with them on their own. free will, Agarwal said.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) created in September to investigate alleged cases of ‘love jihad’ ruled out any conspiracy angles in the 14 such cases it investigated and found no evidence that the Muslim youths involved obtained funds from abroad. The SIT, which released its report on Monday, also dismissed allegations that the youth had the backing of an organization.
The SIT findings come two days after the Uttar Pradesh government announced that bring an ordinance to verify illegal conversions in the state, mainly aimed at alleged cases of ‘love jihad’.
The SIT was formed by Inspector General (Kanpur Range) Mohit Agarwal after members of right-wing Hindu organizations, including the VHP, met him and alleged a conspiracy in which Muslim youths were luring Hindu girls into marriage in an attempt to convert them. They also claimed that the young men, who are being financed from abroad, had hidden their identities from the girls.
The SIT, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Vikas Pandey, submitted its report to Agarwal on Monday after investigating 14 cases filed at police stations across the Kanpur district over the past two years that involved Hindu girls and Muslim men.
Read | ‘Love jihad’ coined by BJP to divide the nation, disturb communal harmony: Ashok Gehlot
Confirming that the SIT submitted its report to him on Monday, Agarwal told The Indian Express that of the 14 cases, the SIT found that the police had taken action against the defendants in 11 cases under Sections 363 (punishment for kidnapping) , 366 (kidnapping, kidnapping or inducing a woman to force her to marry, etc.) and other charges. In eight cases it was established that the victims (the girls) were minors.
In three of the 14 cases, the SIT found that police had filed closure reports after Hindu women, all over the age of 18, had made statements in favor of the defendants, stating that they had married Muslim men or had been with them on their own. free will, Agarwal said.
Of the 11 cases in which action was taken against the defendants, the SIT found that in three cases, the young men had allegedly used false identities, including the preparation of false documents, to impress the girls. In these three cases, the police have added fraud charges against the defendants, the IG said.
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While investigating the ‘conspiracy’ angle in these 11 cases, the SIT found that only four of the young Muslims, against whom cases were brought, knew each other. But that, the SIT found, was because they lived in the same locality: the Juhi colony in Kanpur.
“The part of the conspiracy could not be established. The investigation team also did not find any organization behind the young men (accused). Also, they were not being financed from abroad, ”Agarwal said.
“In three of these 11 cases, the victims claimed that they were forced to become a religion. In three other cases, the girls said they were forced to marry, ”he added.
Police said indictments have been filed in eight of these cases, while prosecution is ongoing in the remainder.
DSP Pandey, who led the investigation, told The Indian Express that in all 11 cases, “we found that the established procedure was not followed when changing the girls’ names prior to their marriage. Furthermore, their marriages were not registered under the Special Marriages Act. “
In September, Hindutva groups raised the issue of the alleged “love jihad” after reports emerged that a Kanpur girl, Shalini Yadav, was marrying a young Muslim man. A few days after leaving home, the girl posted a video in which she said that she had become and was seeking police protection from her parents, who she alleged had submitted a false kidnapping FIR.
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