On Wednesday, the Madhya Pradesh Police arrested a Muslim man identified as Sheikh Jahid under the state’s anti-love jihad law for hiding his religious identity from a Hindu woman and raping her for over 7 years. The victim Hindu woman said that the accused had introduced himself as a Brahmin and had developed sexual relations with her. The Police have registered an FIR against the accused and have also booked Jahid’s brother named Sajid in the case.
According to the reports, the incident is said to have happened in the Shujalpur area of Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur district. The woman registered an official FIR on October 26 and revealed that she had met the accused 14 years ago and the latter had identified himself as a Gama, belonging to the Brahmin community. The woman was divorced earlier from her first marriage and stayed in Bhopal when she first met the accused.
The woman in the complaint stated that she used to work in Airtel company to survive after her first unsuccessful marriage. She used to stay at a relative’s place in Bhopal’s Karaund region where she met the accused. The accused introduced himself to the woman as a Brahmin and developed a friendship with her.
Later the duo entered into a relationship and the accused established sexual relations with the woman after assuring her of marriage. He raped the woman for over 7 years leading to her pregnancy. The woman then forced the accused to marry her. She came to know about the religious identity of the accused only after he presented his original papers in the Court during their Court marriage. The woman recognized that the man she had been keeping relations with this long was a Muslim resident of the Dabripura region of Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur district.
In the police complaint, the victim said that she chose to keep quiet back then as she was bearing a child from the accused. However, after the Court marriage and after their child’s birth, the accused began to harass the woman. He forced her to convert her religion to Islam, offer Namaz, and also asked her to consume meat. On being refused, he used to thrash her brutally.
The victim further stated that she had once tried to escape from the house but was not allowed to leave. “I was fed up with day-to-day harassment. One day, I packed my bag and left Jahid’s house. But he forcefully brought me back. He then started bringing other girls at home to have sexual relations with them after I used to leave for my office”, she said.
Reportedly, the victim happened to approach several Hindu organizations in the city who helped her file a Police complaint. The members of the Hindu organization went with the woman to the Shujalpur City Police Station and demanded strict action against the accused named Jahid. The police have registered an FIR against Jahid and his brother Sajid under relevant sections of the law. However, the police have arrested Jahid and also have launched a manhunt to nab Sajid. Further investigations into the case are underway.
