Some people are hiding their real identities and changing names as part of a conspiracy to lure girls from other communities and police will take strict action against the perpetrators involved, Gujarat minister Harsh Sanghavi said on Sunday.
He was speaking during his visit to Bhavnagar district's Palitana town, where police is investigating a case of a man eloping with a girl of a different community.
The Gujarat minister of state for home asked parents to take care of their daughters so that they do not fall prey to such acts.
"Loving is not wrong. But those who hide their identities, use duplicate documents to trap innocent girls will not be spared, not just in Palitana but anywhere in the state. I am warning all those who are hatching such conspiracies that police will take strict action," Sanghavi told reporters.
Incidentally, the BJP government in the state had, in 2021, passed an an amendment to Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act to provide for a prison sentence of up to 10 years for fraudulent or forcible conversion by marriage. The state government had said the amendment sought to curtail an “emerging trend in which women are lured to marriage for the purpose of religious conversion".
The Gujarat High Court had, in its interim order, prohibited its application to inter-faith marriages.
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(Published 02 January 2022, 16:08 IST)
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