Uttar Pradesh registers first case under anti-conversion law in Bareilly district

A day after Uttar Pradesh Governor gave assent to the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020, the state registered its first case of alleged 'Love Jihad' (Muslim youths marrying Hindu girls under false pretenses) in Bareilly district, about 250 kilometres from Lucknow.

According to police sources, the case was registered on Saturday based on the complaint of parents of a girl, a resident of a village under Deorania police station in the district.

Police said that the parents of the girl alleged that a Muslim youth, who also hailed from the same village, had been trying to 'force' the girl to convert and 'marry' him.

The youth, identified as Uvaish, who was a classmate of the girl, also threatened her parents with serious consequences if they did not allow their daughter to convert and marry him.

Police said that the parents, fearing that Uvaish might 'kidnap' their daughter, got her married elsewhere. ''Uvaish, however, continued to stalk her and even threatened to shoot us and also her in-laws,'' the father of the girl alleged.

''We have registered a case under the new law and the matter is being investigated,'' said a senior police official in Bareilly. 

Police said that the accused was absconding.

The new law provided for a maximum imprisonment of ten years and also a fine for religious conversion through deceit, force, allurement or any other fraudulent means or for the purpose of marriage.