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News Desk: A Muslim youth and a Hindu girl who were staying together for the last five months were heckled by Bajrang Dal members and taken to a police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad Kant area. The incident happened when the inter-faith couple were visiting the area to get their marriage registered.
The Police have registered the case against and have refused to share the copy of the FIR. The man identified as Rashid and his brother were arrested by the police under the newly passed UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020.
The woman was allegedly told that Uttar Pradesh’s new ‘love jihad’ law was passed for “women like her”.
The woman has allegedly claimed that she was an adult and nobody forced into marriage. The girl reportedly presented her ‘nikahnama’, suggesting that she was already converted and married according to Islam customs.
In order to prove innocence, the woman showed a newspaper advertisement as a piece of evidence which reportedly said she had changed her name in keeping with official rules.
Rashid had reportedly married to the woman hailing from Bijnore in Dehradun about five months ago. The two had met in the Uttarakhand capital where Rashid works and the girl used to study.
The Muslim man was arrested on the complaint filed by woman’s mother.
“We have registered the case on the basis of a complaint fil complaint filed by the woman’s mother, and also after an initial probe. If we get something new, we will act accordingly,” additional SP (rural) said.
Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel on November 28 had given assent to the new anti-conversion law – Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 on November 28. Under the new law a marriage is null and void if it is done for religious conversion.
The law has been passed to prevent forcible or fraudulent religious conversions and it provides for imprisonment of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of Rs 50,000 under different categories.
