New Delhi
A Muslim teenager has been detained by police for 10 days in the Indian city of Bijnor for “walking a Hindu girl home” one night after attending a friend’s birthday party.
According to Indian media reports, the teenagers were walking through a street in Nasirpur village after attending a friend’s birthday party when locals spotted them and attacked the Muslim youth. He was then handed over to the police.
A video of the incident shows a mob armed with rods and sticks beating up the Muslim teenager. Initially, the accusations started with “theft” and turned into “love jihad”.
The girl’s father filed a complaint saying that the boy was trying to run away with her to marry and convert her. The girl, however, denies it. “He was not trying to convert me.”
“The accused was booked under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (abduction to compel marriage) of the IPC, Section 18 of the Pocso Act (sexual harassment), Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act (offence carrying 10 years’ jail term against a member of the SC or ST community), and sections 3 (conversion by fraud, misrepresentation, coercion, allurement or marriage) and 5(1) (punishment for forced conversion) of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance,” police said.
Earlier this year, the Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) government in India’s Uttar Pradesh state approved a stringent law to deal with religious conversions for the sake of marriage.—AP
