Maharashtra govt to study 'love jihad' laws of other states, but not opposed to interfaith marriage

'After study we can decide on a new act or amendments, we are working on it, we will surely consider what is good', Dy CM Fadnavis said

The Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government would study bills and acts related to love jihad of other states before taking final call on the issue. However, they made it clear that the government does not have any opposition to inter-faith marriages.

“We will study (the bills and acts of) other states and take an appropriate decision,” Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio and the law and judiciary ministry, told the Maharashtra Legislature on Tuesday.

“After study we can decide on a new act or amendments, we are working on it, we will surely consider what is good,” he said in the Assembly.

“We will study in detail and then only a final call would be taken. However, the government is not against inter-faith marriages,” Fadnavis told reporters in the Vidhan Bhavan complex in Nagpur, where the winter session of Maharashtra legislature is underway.

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Fadnavis's statement on a possible new enactment came while responding to queries vis-a-vis the Shraddha Walkar murder case.

“The probe so far into the Shraddha Walkar case revealed that there was no external pressure from any political leaders. However, police are probing why it took a month into the filing and withdrawal of a complaint by Shraddha Walkar," he said, and announced a probe into it.

Shraddha Walkar (27), a resident of Vasai in Palghar district, was killed by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawalla (28), by cutting her body in 35 pieces and disposing it off in Mehrauli in Delhi.

Shraddha’s father Vikas Walkar had earlier met Fadnavis and had claimed that in the initial stages the local police in Vasai and Tulinj in Nalasopara - which falls under the Mira Bhayander Vasai-Virar police commissionerate - were lax.

Fadnavis also pointed out that in the recent past there has been 40-odd morchas at various places in the state demanding a love jihad law.