A horrifying case of Grooming Jihad has come to the fore from Faridabad in Haryana, where a man named Murad Ali masqueraded as Sameer to lure a Hindu girl. He married her in a temple as per Hindu customs. However, after his identity was revealed, he started pressurising her to convert to Islam. The accused, on multiple occasions, physically assaulted her and got her beaten up by goons when she refused to succumb to his demands. The victim has approached the police in Faridabad and Noida but alleges no action has been taken in her case so far.
Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma has shared the details of the case in a thread of Tweets, as narrated to her by the victim and the police.
According to the journalist, the victim was divorced and living with her family in Faridabad, when she came in contact with Murad Ali in 2021 over the phone for a job opening. Since the victim had recently lost her father she was in search of job opportunity and Murad Ali who posed as Sameer offered her exactly that.
After the accused helped the victim get a job, they started talking over the phone regularly and eventually grew close to each other. The girl told Sameer aka Murad Ali that she was only interested in a serious relationship. To assure her, the accused made her speak to his sister and mother over the phone. Then he took her to a temple and married her as per Hindu customs.
When the victim objected to getting married in that fashion, saying that no one else was present during the ceremony, the accused assured her that he would soon take her to his family and hold a formal but private ceremony. Murad Ali then established a physical relationship with her claiming to be her husband. He eventually took her to his home in December 2021.
On reaching Murad Ali’s home, his real name and religion were revealed to the victim. The family, thereafter pressurised her to convert to Islam and perform Nikah as per Islamic traditions, but the victim refused. She left home and filed a case against Murad Ali at a local police station in Faridabad in December 2021.
As the Haryana government has not yet enacted any law against love jihad, the police registered a case under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 313 (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent).
The victim alleged that the police instead of helping her, mocked her by asking how she did not notice the circumcision, to which the victim replied that she was not aware of such things.
As police delayed the arrest, Murad Ali went absconding and managed to take a stay order on arrest in May. The same month, the victim filed another case in Faridabad against Murad Ali’s family. She alleged that the family assaulted her for the police case she had previously filed against Murad. In the second case, some of Murad’s family members were arrested but granted bail shortly after the arrest.
The journalist further revealed that since the victim’s family is unsupportive and has been asking her to withdraw both cases or fight on her own, she has been working and living in Noida all by herself.
The victim, while narrating her ordeal revealed that she has been attacked twice on her way home from the office by unknown men. Since both the times, the goons asked her to take back the cases she had filed against Murad Ali and his family, she was sure that the goons who attacked her were Murad’s aides.
The victim was quoted by the journalist as saying that the last attack on her was carried out on June 26, 2022. She had then dialled 100 and the police arrived to save her. The victim also reportedly created a new Twitter account and shared her ordeal on the social media platform tagging the Noida police but she says no action has been taken in her case yet.
The journalist further wrote, “Please note that cheating and false identity are not her only accusations against Murad. She told me about being violated physically in words that left me horrified. She was also made to undergo abortions at late stages several times, medical copies of which she showed me.”
Swati Goel Sharma added that the victim gave a complaint to a local police station in Noida, but they did not convert the complaint into an FIR. Murad Ali has not been arrested yet.
Sharing a video posted by her on June 14, wherein the victim is heard narrating her horrifying story, the Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma said that she herself tried meeting two senior officers through references but none showed interest in the victim’s case.
Are police really sensitised about cases of ‘love jihad’? Met a survivor today in west UP. Hers is a horrific story, but accused Murad Ali remains free despite case filed in Dec. Police are asking her, how did you not see he was circumcised. Sharing a clip from a large interview pic.twitter.com/wztc4gL7tK
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) June 14, 2022
“In taking up the case. I offered the victim monetary help to change her location, but she says it’s of no use because “Murad will find out”. End of the thread. It’s up to the police and govt now to show they take safety of women seriously,” the journalist wrote while ending the thread.
