For many decades, India has been plagued by the menace of love jihad as well as grooming jihad where Muslim men lure non-Muslim girls, especially from the Hindu community including minors by concealing their real identities and then proceeding to exploit their targets sexually. These matters often escalate to assault, harassment, torture, forced conversion, blackmail and even murder. All the states have also fallen victim to this pandemic and are witnessing a startling rise in such cases. The severity of the issue is demonstrated by the recent instances alone. In the first case, Adnan Khan trapped an underage tribal girl from Jharkhand. In the second one, Mohammad Matloom tricked a Hindu woman from Madhya Pradesh. In the third incident, Mohammad Javed duped a young Hindu woman and in the third occurrence, Zafar deceived a minor Hindu girl. All three cases are from Uttar Pradesh.
Grooming Jihad in Jharkhand
Jharkhand’s tribal regions are deeply affected by the growing threat of “grooming jihad” which is demonstrated by the recent instance where Adnan Khan (19) used social media to entrap a 15-year-old Hindu tribal girl, reported Organiser. He befriended her through Instagram. According to the complaint submitted by her family, he interacted with her on the app. “Adnan_khan_aaa” is his Instagram handle. He persuaded their daughter to elope to Delhi by gradually seducing her to fall in love with him. They filed a missing report on 13th October and charged that the accused had coerced her into accompanying him to Delhi.
He subsequently contacted her parents and told them that he was deeply in love with her and that her friends Taruna and Diksha could provide them with further information about him. The girl’s mother is currently employed as a maid at the house of Ambika Rai, the head of a non-governmental organization (NGO) that assists in rescuing girls who are either trafficked or held by Islamists. Organiser spoke to the latter and she disclosed that the police officer, who was reportedly Muslim, declined to register the parent’s complaint. He later registered a complaint but did not provide them with any form of access to it. Ambika Rai added that he only launched a complaint and handed over a copy after she spoke sternly with him.
She unveiled that Adnan was in contact with other girls in the family and claimed that they were like his sisters. He somehow persuaded the victim to come to Delhi as they had known each other for a while. When he later learned that the police were pursuing him, he called the girl’s parents and threatened to stop them from taking legal action against him. He boasted that he is well-connected and that they could not do anything to him.
However, the offender was contacted after the complaint was submitted and his mobile number was located. He then promised the complainants that he would return their daughter to Jharkhand and would also go to the railway station with her. He was apprehended by the railway police, who were also accompanied by female police officers when he went to the Anand Vihar railway station in New Delhi to drop the girl off. They couldn’t discover the girl at first, but as the cops became tough with Adnan, he told them that she was inside the train. It turned out that the girl was concealing her true identity by donning a hijab.
The girl was then brought for counselling. The perpetrator had made her speak to the family and her sisters had advised her to return because her mother’s health was deteriorating. According to Ambika Rai, he had also been to Delhi’s red light district. Members of another NGO who were following him stated that he had arrived at the location late at 2:00 am. Jharkhand police departed for the national capital to arrest him. Ambika Rai voiced that the case needs a thorough probe as Adnan is merely a minor player in a larger scheme to either traffic Tribal Hindu girls or trap and convert them to Islam.
Love Jihad case from Hamirpur district
A case of “love jihad” surfaced from the Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh, where Mohammad Matloom masqueraded as Raju Thakur to seduce a Hindu woman from Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh, according to a report in Organiser. He tricked her into marrying him and embracing Islam. She managed to escape his clutches and filed a formal complaint after being threatened and sexually abused. On 16th October a First Information Report (FIR) was launched at the Biwnar police station after the victim’s complaint which revealed that she met him on Facebook, where he had presented himself as Hindu.
Matloom persuaded her to travel to Hamirpur after weeks of chatting by promising to marry her. She learned that the man she had been talking to was actually Muslim when she arrived at Hamirpur on 25th July. She was also pressured by his father Mehboob and another unnamed person to convert to Islam and then they forced her to have nikah (Islamic wedding ceremony). “When I opposed, the unknown person and Mehboob threatened me with a pistol and said they would chop and throw me into the jungle. They locked me in a room. At night, Matloom, the son of Mehboob, raped me multiple times. He physically assaulted me and threatened to shoot me when I resisted,” she narrated her ordeal.
She was able to get away and reach her home the next morning. However, her suffering didn’t cease there as Matloom and the unnamed accomplice persistently called her and her family. They used derogatory language about her mother and sisters and threatened to harm her or abduct her family members. She unveiled that the fact that no instant action was taken despite her repeated pleadings to the authorities had given the culprits more confidence. Sections 64(2)(m), 127(2), 352, and 351(2) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 3 and 5(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act have been invoked against the accused.
Love Jihad case in Pilibhit
In the second incident, a young Hindu woman was tricked by Mohammad Javed who forced her to convert to Islam and have nikah and threatened to leak her leak intimate photos and video if she didn’t obey him. The matter came to light on 14th October when she filed an FIR at the Sungadhi Police Station in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit which stated that he initially pretended to be Rahul and befriended her on social media. Their conversations began and he traveled to Pilibhit soon after Holi where the two met. He took Lakshmi to a nearby pizzeria, where he sexually assaulted her and captured the incident on camera. He utilised the recordings to blackmail her and threatened that he would release them if she didn’t agree to his demands for more meetings.
The incident intensified at the Pilibhit Dussehra fair when the accused tried to take her by force. He exposed his true identity and brutally attacked her and even choked her when she refused. “My real name is Javed, and now you will have to convert and marry me. If you refuse, I will release all the videos and photos, making sure no one else will want you,” he declared. She raised an alarm, worried for her safety and honour. As soon as locals arrived on the scene, he was forced to escape. She reported the incident to her family right away, and they went on to lodge an official police complaint.
The cops arrested him and a case under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections 64(2)(m), 115(2), and 351(3) was filed. “We have arrested the accused, Javed, who had been operating under a false identity to trap the victim. The charges are severe, and we are committed to ensuring that justice is delivered in this case,” the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Pilibhit highlighted.
Love Jihad case from Kanpur
In the third incidence, Zafar made friends with a 17-year-old girl in 11th grade in the Bidhanu police station area of Kanpur by posing as Raj. He even forced her to consume a cold beverage contaminated with alcohol while driving her to an unidentified location under the guise of dropping her off at home from school. He then began blackmailing the girl after making a pornographic film of her. He shared the video on social media after she stopped talking with him. Afterwards, he put pressure on her to become a Muslim. She informed her family members about the occurrence after the video went viral online and they lodged a police complaint. The authorities then initiated their investigation and began looking for the accused.
