On Thursday a father from Coimbatore had petitioned the Police Commissioner to take immediate action to bring out the truth of his daughter’s suicide, which he alleges was due to ‘love jihad’. In a press conference yesterday, he alleged that the police were yet to take action on Jafer, a Muslim student, who had allegedly tortured his daughter to convert to Islam.
Ashwini Ganga, a first-year B.Com student of Sree Narayana Guru College committed suicide on 25 April at their house in Kuniyamutyhur, Coimbatore. In the press conference the father, Gangadharan, along with a Hindu Munnani activist and advocate, Sridhar Moorthy, alleged that she had committed suicide after Jafer scolded her when he visited her house, while she was alone.
Ashwini had been receiving threatening messages from Jafer prior to his visit. From the text messages, it could be seen that Ashwini had been ignoring him for a period of time, she wasn’t going to college nor was she picking up his calls. Jafer had clearly threatened to visit her home and deal with her.
In a suicide note, that allegedly has been kept hidden by the police, Sridhar Moorthy said that Jafer had been in Ashwini’s house for 30 mins and threatened her to convert. He had even threatened that her family wouldn’t be safe in the city if it was found that she had informed them. It was then that she had decided to hang herself.
After Ashwini was found in her room hanging, Gangadharan rushed her to the hospital in the hope of saving her. However, she was confirmed to be dead. Gangadharan informed the police, after which the police came to gather evidence. Allegedly, the police did not ask any questions regarding the case. Instead, Gangadharan was asked to come to the police station next morning.
When Gangadharan arrived at the station the next morning, the FIR was already written in Tamil. However, Gangadharan being a native of Kerala did not read or write Tamil. Despite this, he was asked to sign the FIR so that he could retrieve the body and take it back to his home in Thalassery, Kannur.
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The complaint was filed at the Kuniyamuthur police station. Gangadharan alleges that no action has been taken so far and Jafer was walking scot free. This is when Gangadharan decided to petition Commissioner to take immediate action in the alleged ‘love jihad’ case.
Besides this Gangadharan has also alleged that Jaffer is part of a five-member Muslim gang who have been trapping vulnerable Hindu girls with ‘love jihad’. He also accused the police of being scared to take action against them as they belong to the Muslim community.
However, sources in the police have said that there was no religious angle to this case and have claimed that the suicide was due to a love dispute.
Last month a minor Hindu girl residing in Brahmpuri area, Meerut Uttar Pradesh, who was abducted a fortnight back had been forcibly converted and married thereafter. In another case of love jihad, a girl who had run of marry a man of her choice was forced to eat cow meat and read namaz.