Two cases of 'Love Jihad' in UP fail legal test; no evidence in one, court stays arrest in another

Of about a dozen cases of alleged 'love jihad' after the new 'anti-conversion' law in Uttar Pradesh, two have failed to clear the initial legal test.

While in one of the cases, the court ordered release of two arrested Muslim youths after the police failed to produce any evidence against them, in another, the court stayed the arrest of a Muslim man, who had been booked under the new law.

The police in Moradabad district had, last month, arrested a Muslim youth under UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020, after the mother of a woman alleged that her daughter had been tricked into marrying him, though the woman pleaded that she had married him of her own volition. The 22-year old pregnant woman had been heckled and humiliated publicly allegedly by workers of a saffron outfit for marrying the Muslim youth.

The woman's marriage was termed as 'love jihad' by the saffron outfit's workers, who forcibly took her and her husband to the police station, where he and his brother, who was also with him, were arrested while the woman was sent to a shelter home. The woman claimed that she miscarried in the district hospital after she was administered some injections. The officials refused to comment on the charge.

After spending over two weeks in jail, the two youths were released on Saturday on the orders of the district court after the police failed to produce any evidence against them.

In another case, the Allahabad high court stayed the arrest of a Muslim youth, who was charged with 'luring' a Hindu woman into conversion in the state's Muzaffarnagar district and was booked under the new law.

Several cases of alleged 'love jihad' were reported from different parts in UP since the new law came into effect.

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.