The case is the fifth to be filed in UP since the anti-conversion ordinance became law last week.
Moradabad:
A Muslim man and his brother were arrested by police in Moradabad, western Uttar Pradesh, after he and a 22-year-old Hindu woman tried to register their marriage in the Kanth district.
The men were turned over to the police after a group of people from a right-wing group, the Bajrang Dal, approached the trio at the marriage registry office and prevented them from going through the formalities, and then took the three to local police. station.
In a 1 minute and 11 second video that has gone viral on social media, men surround the woman inside the premises of the Kanth Police Station in Moradabad.
“Show us the permission you have from the DM (District Magistrate) to convert your religion,” says one of the men to the woman, while at least two policemen, one of them with a lathi look.
“Have you read the new law or not?” another man says, adding “Ye tum jaise logon ke liye banana pada hai (the law had to be made for people like you) “.
The woman, however, told reporters that she and the man were married with consent. “I am an adult, I am 22 years old. I got married of my own free will on July 24. This is the fifth month that we were married,” the woman told reporters.
Police said the complaint in the case was filed by the Hindu woman’s mother who claimed the Muslim had tricked her daughter into marrying and converting. “We have arrested both men and will investigate the case thoroughly,” Vidya Sagar, a senior police official, said in a statement.
It is unclear whether the man or woman had been converted or planned to do so. The arrested men have been registered under Section 3 of the Uttar Pradesh Illegal Conversion of Religion Prohibition Ordinance of 2020, which deals with forced conversion. Both face between 1 and 5 years in prison if the charges against them are upheld in court.
This case is the fifth to come before UP since the anti-conversion ordinance was signed into law a week ago in the state amid heightened sensitivity about “Love Jihad,” the right-wing conspiracy theory that Muslim men try to seduce Hindu women into having them. convert your religion.
The term “love jihad is not defined by law,” the Union Interior Ministry told parliament in February, adding that central agencies had not reported such a case. However, since last month, several states governed by the BJP have moved to pass legislation against it.
Uttar Pradesh, which has a part of the Muslim population, has been the first to leave the bloc with an ordinance or executive order, which says that religious conversions that use falsehood, force or an incentive, or that take place solely to marriage, will be declared a crime.
Those who plan to convert after marriage will have to give the district judge two months’ notice. The person who converts will have to prove that he was not forced or by marriage. All cases will not be subject to bail.
.
