A 23-year-old Muslim, who was riding a bus with a woman of another religion, was allegedly beaten and stabbed by members of the Bajrang Dal on Thursday. The New Indian Express reported on Friday.
Four people have been arrested in connection with the incident. Some media reports mentioned that the woman was a Hindu.
Police said the woman was traveling to Bangalore to find work and had asked the man, her friend, to accompany her. “The incident occurred around 9.30 pm when a group of Bajrang Dal members stopped the bus in which the man and the woman were traveling and assaulted the man,” the newspaper said, citing the Mangaluru city police commissioner, N Shashi Kumar. “He was also stabbed by them.”
The commissioner added that both were forced to get off the bus, NDTV reported. “The boy was beaten and when the girl tried to get in the way, she too was injured,” he said. The man suffered a stab wound near the hip and was taken to a hospital.
The police formed four teams to arrest the accused, according to The new Indian express. They were charged under Section 307 (attempted murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
The police commissioner told the newspaper that there had been four such incidents in the past three months, adding that more police personnel would be deployed in public places to stop such incidents.
An unidentified police officer said The minute of the news that officials were investigating how the defendant found out about the man and woman riding the bus. “The group of men was agitated because they were from different communities and they raised accusations about ‘love jihad’,” the official said.
“Love jihad” is a conspiracy theory espoused by right-wing Hindu activists, who allege that Hindu women are forcibly converted by Muslims through marriage.
States governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have introduced ordinances criminalizing interfaith marriage under the fig leaf of “love jihad.” The Uttar Pradesh Assembly passed the controversial law on February 24. Several arrests have been made in the state under the law.
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