A Hindu girl, an MBA student, residing in Navi Mumbai fell prey to an incident of ‘love jihad’, where she was lured into marriage by a Muslim boy who posed as a Hindu to woo her and was thereafter gang-raped.
As per the Hindi daily, Patrika, the Hindu girl fell into the trap laid by this Muslim boy named Ajmal who changed his name to Ajju alias Ajay to allure the girl. He pretended to fall in love with her. Luring her into marriage took her to Bandra court where he forcefully converted her and thereafter married her. She was subsequently gang-raped during the ‘munh dikhai’ ceremony, a post-marriage custom where the newly wed bride is introduced to rest of the family.
Following the complaint, the Vashi police have filed a case of gang-rape and arrested Ajmal Raes Khan, the Hindu girl’s husband, his two brothers, Afzar Raes Khan and Shanu Itkhar Khan and Ajmal’s friend, Makhsoor Rafik Ahmed.
As per the report, Ajmal alias Ajju met the Hindu girl one year back in a unisex parlour situated in a shopping mall in Vashi where Ajmal worked as a barber. The victim had first visited the parlour for a hair cut. In order to get her mobile number, Ajmal, who introduced himself as Ajju to the victim, informed her about the available services in the salon and gave her a form to fill up, which required her personal details including mobile number.
Ajmal thereafter started calling up the victim regularly in the pretext of her hair treatment in the salon. The huge amount of money the victim started spending on her hair treatments gave Ajmal an idea of the victim’s flush background.
Eventually, the girl eventually fell in love with Ajmal, who was, for all this while, hiding his real identity. The girl was so much in love with the boy that she started giving him lakhs of rupees to establish his own business. After some time, the victim started pressurising Ajmal to marry her.
As per the report, the victim was now aware of Ajmal’s religion and was ready to marry him on condition that she will not convert or change her religion. Assuring her that she need not convert, Ajmal called her to Bandra Court on July 15. She was, however, forcefully converted and married thereafter.
After the victim reached her inlaws house they reportedly started mistreating her. She was mentally and physically tortured at her inlaws house. Soon after marriage, Ajmal demanded Rs 15 lakh from the victim and started beating her up on trivial matters.
The atrocities did not stop here. During the ‘muh dikhai’ ceremony (this is a post-marriage ceremony, wherein the newly-wed bride’s face is shown to the family for the first time as an introduction to the family members) the victim was gang-raped by her husband, his two brothers and one friend.
The victim told the Vashi police that during the ceremony the accused spiked her drink, because of which she fell unconscious. The accused took advantage of this situation and raped her. The next day the victim realised that she was raped. Disturbed by all this the victim left her inlaws house and went back to her house.
The report further states that Ajmal’s brothers along with their friend, later went to her house to seek forgiveness, and again secretly spiked her drink and convinced her to have it. After the victim fell unconscious the three again raped her.
The victim, thereafter, approached the police and filed a complaint at Vashi police station, against her husband, his two brothers and his friend, alleging gang-rape.
Following the complaint, police apprehended the four accused and produced them in court which has sent the accused to judicial custody until August 2.
While talking to Patrika, the victim said that in her written complaint she has specifically mentioned that Ajmal wooed her by hiding his identity. He had introduced himself as Ajju alias Ajay. He took her to the court where she was forcefully converted and married thereafter, divulged the victim. She asserted that though she categorically mentioned all of this in her statement, the police tried to cover up the ‘love jihad’ angle.
She said that she had written about this to the CM Devendra Fadnavis and the DGP and awaits a reply.
Throwing light on the police’s apathy, she furthered that when the accused were produced in the court, the inquiry officers were not present, which made her case weak. She added that the accused instead of being sent to police custody were sent to judicial custody. Standing resolute to fight against the atrocities meted out at her, the victim said that if the accused apply for bail she would oppose it and would complain about the police apathy to the court.
