Another shocking instance of love jihad has been reported from the Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Here, a Muslim man by the name of Mohammed Raju alias Rajul lured a minor Hindu girl and kidnapped her. Furthermore, he raped the victim and forced her to embrace Islam before marrying her.
The incident reportedly occurred on 28 June at the Dharmpur Suswan Khurd hamlet under the Asothar police station. The girl’s mother said that her 16-year-old daughter went missing after going towards the field at around 7 pm on 28th June. When she didn’t return, the family launched a search, but could not find her. After that, they registered a missing person complaint with the police on 1st July. As the locals had seen Md. Raju was in that place around the time the girl went missing, his name was mentioned as a suspect in the complaint.
The police launched an investigation after the complaint was filed by the mother. They tracked his cellphone number with the aid of their surveillance squad, but, he was able to flee when they stormed his hiding place. However, the police succeeded in rescuing the young girl.
Her brother stated that she was wearing a burqa when the police found her and brought her to the police station. The girl told him that she was kidnapped by the accused and taken to a relative’s house where she was raped repeatedly. After some days, he called a cleric and both of them forced her to become a Muslim, after which Md Raju forcefully married her with the help of the cleric.
In addition, she was compelled to don the burqa after the wedding. She received warnings of repercussions for refusing to learn Islamic rituals and she was brutally assaulted and death threats were issued when she objected.
The first information report revealed that at around 7 in the evening, the victim went to the fields to defecate. The family members searched extensively after she failed to return home, but they were unable to locate her. Her mother arrived at the police station on 1 July after she learnt about her abduction by Mohammed Raju alias Rajul, who also lived in the same village, and filed a report.
The girl was discovered on 14 July by the police and sent to the district hospital for medicolegal procedures so that her statement can be recorded.
Station in-charge Pramod Kumar Maurya said that a 16-year-old minor girl of a woman was abducted by a Muslim youth of the village. After recovering the girl, a case has been registered against the absconding accused youth under IPC sections including kidnapping, rape, religious conversion and POCSO Act. The search is on for the accused.
Hindu organisations also met with police authorities and demanded the arrest of Mohammed Raju immediately. They joined the family members in voicing their strong opposition to the police’s failure to apprehend him.
Similar cases have occurred before in the neighbourhood. Four of such aforementioned occurrences have surfaced in the past month only. A Muslim named Faizan was charged with forcefully converting another minor Hindu girl to Islam on 13 July in the Bindki Kotwali area. He had also kidnapped and raped the victim. The police filed a case, recovered her and sent the culprit to jail.
Meanwhile, earlier in the same police station area, a Muslim who later changed his name to Sonu from Sikandar brutally murdered a minor Hindu girl after raping her. The authorities bulldozed the accused’s residence and put him in jail after massive protests by Hindu outfits.
