On Sunday, August 6, the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) arrived in the Rahuri region of Ahmednagar to look into the dreadful case of Love Jihad that was reported recently from Umbre village. Three minor girls from Umbre, Rahuri complained that their tuition teacher Heena Pathan trained them to behave like Muslims while her ‘relative’ Avej Sheikh trapped them in a love affair and forced them to convert to Islam and wear the burqa.
NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo talked to the victim girls and the investigating police officials to confirm the event and revealed heavy lapses in the probe by the police. The chief of the Child Rights body alleged that the Ahmednagar police were trying to shield the accused by focusing more on the countercase filed against Hindus who offered help to the victims rather than on the love jihad case.
“Our primary investigation reveals that there are many loopholes in the police investigation. The investigating officers, even the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Ahmednagar police don’t know who the special juvenile police officer is. Police have not investigated the phones of the accused, they have not traced any information from the Instagram app that was used to trap the girls by the accused. The police have not even attained information about Heena Pathan who lured the girls as if she was operating some kind of racket,” the NCPCR chief said.
NCPCR also observed that coaching centre owner lady fed the girls with suspicious drugs, facilitated physical relations with boys n encouraged SM liaison in many cities; despite that SP @NagarPolice failed to obtain Instagram data, victims badly coerced to help accused + pic.twitter.com/NxzBNteYqZ
— Legal Rights Observatory- LRO (@LegalLro) August 6, 2023
The NCPCR chief also, meanwhile, pressed for the need for the launch and implementation of the anti-conversion law in the state of Maharashtra since these rackets are being run like organised crime and are a clear case of human trafficking, he said.
“The state needs to implement anti-conversion law. Such incidents happen in the absence of stringent laws. The Police are focusing on the cross-case. The complaints of the girls were not heard initially. FIRs were filed 7-8 hours late. Why was the police waiting? Why were the girls not heard?”, Kanoongo stated.
OpIndia learned on ground that the Hindu activists who offered to help the girls were arrested in ‘false’ case
It is important to note that OpIndia had been on the ground to look into the case on August 3. The team learned that the Hindu activists who offered to help the victim girls were deliberately arrested by the police in an alleged false case.
Around 13 Hindu activists of 25 booked were arrested by the police alleging that they had created a ruckus in the Masjid and around the area. The FIR based on a complaint filed by one Salim Pathan also stated that the Hindus had pelted stones at his place of work and in the Masjid.
However, it was found that the 13 arrested individuals were not present in Umbre when the ruckus in and around the Masjid happened and that they were booked and arrested deliberately for helping the victim minor girls and belonging to local Hindu organizations.
One of the victim girls also confirmed the incident to OpIndia and said that the Hindu individuals were not at fault and had approached to help them. “The Hindu brothers had come to help us. They did nothing. But the Police charged them and arrested them. Why have they been arrested when not at all at fault? This is totally wrong,” one of the victim girls stated to OpIndia.
Rahuri Police arrest of 13 Hindu persons, comments zero on presence
Rahuri Police Inspector Dhananjay Jadhav was also reached by the team for a special comment on the case. Jadhav confirmed that “the 13 have been given bail but the investigation in the case is underway and the truth will soon come out.”
When asked whether the ‘allegations’ put forth by the 13 arrested, now bailed Hindu persons are true, Jadhav stated, “Democracy has given right and freedom to speak to everyone. Nobody can stop them from saying what they want to say. Police work as per the law. They were named in the FIR so we had to take action against them. That’s it.”
Further on specifically asking whether the 13 Hindu persons were actually present in Umbre when the ruckus around Masjid happened, the PI said, “Nothing can be commented on that now. Whether they were part of the mob who created a ruckus around the Masjid or not will be decided in and by the Court. It’s all the part of an ongoing investigation which cannot be revealed at present.”
Hindus were beaten, targeted for belonging to local Hindu organisations
Further, one of the 13 arrested individuals who have now been granted bail talked exclusively to OpIndia to state that the ruckus in and around the Masjid happened at 8:30 pm on July 26 and that they had reached from Rahuri to Umbre to help the girls and their parents are around 10:30 pm.
The Hindu activists were brutally beaten by the police before being taken into custody. They were deliberately targeted for belonging to a local Hindu organization. Notably, the action against Hindus was taken by the police based on an FIR filed by Salim Pathan who claimed that the Hindus had pelted stones at the Masjid. Salim Pathan himself is named as accused by the three girls in separate FIRs which say that they were trapped in a love affair and forced to convert their religion to Islam.
After the incident emerged, a huge rally of local Hindu organizations was organized in Rahuri which saw a massive presence of villagers and Hindus. BJP’s Nitesh Rane addressed the rally alleging the local police of ‘favouring’ the Muslims. He also raised voice against the forceful conversion imposed by Muslims and condemned the recent incident that took place in Umbre, Rahuri.
Rally against #LoveJihad in #Rahuri saw massive presence.
— Siddhi Somani (@sidis28) August 5, 2023
I've been on ground. Situation is more serious than it looks. Things are being portrayed differently.
2 more cases have been registered after the cases of 3 minor girls emerged from Umbre.
In video @NiteshNRane pic.twitter.com/C3VJVry5TB
Minor girls were intoxicated, threatened, blackmailed, forced to convert to Islam
The minor girls said that one Avej Sheikh trapped them separately in a love affair and forced them to run away with him. He asked them for money and also threatened them to be in a relationship. He touched the girls inappropriately and obtained their photographs which he used to blackmail the girls to be in a physical relationship. In this, Avej’s friends Kaif, Sohail, his sister Alisha, uncles Salim Pathan, Altaf Sheikh and Shakir Sayyed helped him with money and other resources.
Meanwhile, the tuition teacher of the girls, Heena Pathan groomed the girls to behave like Muslims and asked them to stop wearing bangles and kumkum on their foreheads. She also fed one of the girls with milk that contained some toxic substance. Uncle Salim Pathan was ready to give Avej Rs 7 lacs and home if he would trap any of the girls and convert them to Islam.
The girls confirmed to OpIndia that around 7-8 girls were targeted by Avej and were threatened to be in relation with him at separate time intervals during the course of the last two years. All the accused persons in the case have now been arrested. However, the police are said to have destroyed the evidence and formatted the phones of the accused persons.
Further investigations into the case are underway.
Earlier detailed reports regarding this case can be read here, here and here.
