The Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur for probing alleged love jihad cases has not found any evidence of foreign funding or organised conspiracy. The team has submitted its report to IG Range, reported Quint Hindi.
According to the Quint Hindi report, SIT included a total of 14 cases in its investigation, in 11 of which the police filed a criminal charge sheet against the accused under Sections 363 (punishment for kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc) and other charges. In eight cases, it was established that the victims (the girls) were minors.
The team was set up after 14 cases were reported where the girls’ parents had claimed that Muslim boys had duped their daughters and “trapped them in love”. Inspector General of Kanpur Mohit Agarwal said the SIT investigation did not find any links to foreign funding, or that this was an organised conspiracy adding that the accused did change their names and some established relationship with minors.
However, in three cases, the women, all above 18 years, have given a statement in defence of the accused stating they married Muslim men or were with them out of free will which has contributed to the final report. There has been no further probe in these three cases.
“A total of 14 cases had come in Kanpur in which the parents had alleged that their daughters were implicated by the boys by deception…the SIT investigated all the cases in which 11 cases were found in which some crime was committed and 11 people have been sent to jail.”Mohit Agrawal, IG
More Details
IG Mohit Agrawal told the The Indian Express that in three out of the 11 cases, the SIT found that the accused allegedly used false identities, including preparing fake documents, to impress the girls. In these three cases, police have added charges of fraud against the accused.
Agrawal further said that in these cases of alleged love jihad, the SIT found that four of the accused Muslim boys had been in touch with each other. However, SIT found that this could also be because they lived in the same locality — Juhi colony in Kanpur.
“The conspiracy part could not be established. The inquiry team also did not find any organisation to be behind the youths (accused). Also, they were not being funded from abroad,” said Agarwal.
However, IG Mohit Agarwal also informed, according to Quint Hindi, that no gang or conspiracy has been revealed in the probe.
“No such thing has been revealed in the investigation so far indicating that they have any gang or they have done all this under a conspiracy by forming an organisation. However, there has been talk of fraud, they have cheated by changing their name and they have done this with some minor girls too.”
Further, it has been alleged that in order to marry girls of other religions, the accused have got the name and religion of the girls changed too. It has also been alleged that the law was not followed in the process of name change and conversion. The police is expected to take further action in the matter, reported Quint Hindi.
DSP Pandey, who headed the probe, told The Indian Express that in the 11 cases, “we found that established procedure was not followed while changing the names of the girls before their marriage. Also, their marriages were not registered under the Special Marriages Act.”
Background
The Uttar Pradesh Home Department on Friday, 20 November, announced that a strict law against ‘love jihad’ will soon be brought in the state.
The Home Department of the state has sent a proposal on the same to the Department of Law, reported news agency ANI.
This comes days after Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states Madhya Pradesh, Haryana announced that they will bring a law against ‘love jihad’.
(With inputs from Quint Hindi and Indian Express)
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