On August 17, members of Hindu organizations in Barkagaon, Jharkhand, sat on a hunger strike against the attempts of forced conversion of Hindu girls Suman Kumari and her minor sister. As per reports, Suman, her mother Kiran Devi, and her minor sister were also sitting on hunger strike. Notably, on August 16, Hindu organizations including Bajrang Dal, VHP and others had threatened to sit on hunger strike if the accused in the case were not arrested in 24 hours.
Kiran Devi narrated the incident that had happened on August 10. She said the village chief Wasin, his son, and dozens of others came to her house at around 8:30 PM and forcibly took away both her daughters while using abusive language. They pressured them to convert to Islam and threatened to kill them if they refused to do so. “Both of my daughters were forced to do sit-ups and assaulted by them on the pretext of making videos viral,” Kiran Devi said.
She added, “The next morning, I met Sadar Mohammad Halil, Secretary Professor Farzuddin, and Panchayat Samiti member Shabnam Parveen’s husband Mohammad Irfan along with other people from the community to file a complaint in the matter. When the accused got information about the meeting, they again visited my house in the night and beat up my daughters.”
Sanatan Hindu Samaj Sangathan’s Aman Kumar said Police were not taking action in the matter. He said they filed an official complaint at Barkagaon Police Station and demanded security for the victim’s family. However, no concrete action was taken by the Police despite giving August 15 as the last date to arrest the accused. Hence, the Hindu organizations decided to sit on a hunger strike. He added that they would continue to sit on hunger strike till the family gets justice.
Station in-charge Vinod Kumar said the Police had initiated a probe in the matter, and two people have been arrested so far. “We are raiding the locations linked to the accused to find the rest of them. I appeal to everyone to have faith in the justice system. The culprits will be punished,” Kumar said.
Case filed against Suman Kumari and her mother
Earlier, it was reported that a case was filed by Barkagaon Police against Suman and her mother for provoking people on religious grounds. The case was filed under Sections 295(A) and 298 of IPC, Section 67 of IT Act based on the complaint of the Muslim side. The local villagers accused Police of giving protection to the accused.
