Woman alleges ‘Love Jihad,’ retracts in video

Days after a Muslim gym trainer in Hubballi was accused of sexually assaulting a woman, an incident that Sriram Sene and other Hindu organisations alleged was an instance of ‘Love Jihad’, a 23-year-old woman from Hubballi on Sunday levelled similar allegations against a Dharwad-based youngster. 

In the complaint filed at the Keshwapur police station, the woman alleged that Mufeez Miyanavar, whom she befriended in college, sexually assaulted her in November 2025. Furthermore, Mufeez allegedly threatened to kill her parents if she spoke of the incident to anyone else.

Keshwapur police promptly arrested Mufeez soon after the complaint was filed, and the latter was remanded in judicial custody, said Hubballi-Dharwad Deputy Commissioner of Police Shruthi M S, adding that they were investigating the complaint.

However, soon after she filed the complaint, a video wherein the woman purportedly admitted to filing the plaint under pressure from unspecified people, was shared on the Congress party’s social media handle. In the same video, the woman is heard saying that Mufeez had been willing to marry her, and had even secured his parents’ nod. She said that she was then visited by ‘some people’ who forced her to lodge a police complaint against Mufeez.

Congress leader Rajat Ullagaddimath alleged that BJP was trying to stoke tensions ahead of the byelection by projecting personal problems as instances of ‘Love Jihad’, which he said was part of the saffron party’s ‘toolkit’.