A case of love jihad has come to light in the Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh where a man named Shoaib is accused of the forceful conversion of an 18-year-old Dalit girl to Islam. Her father disclosed that the victim suffered from sexual abuse and was force-fed beef. On 4 December, authorities informed that a case had been registered and an investigation was underway. Notably, women are also named among the perpetrators.
The instance is reportedly from a village in the Sursa police station neighbourhood of the Hardoi district. On 17 June the accused who is a resident of the Firozabad district abducted the girl from Sonepat. The family members searched for her but failed to find their daughter. Her father works in a factory in the Sonepat district of Haryana to support the family.
However, on 3 December she returned to her Hardoi hamlet on her own and revealed that the offender took her to Firozabad where she was compelled to embrace Islam and consume beef. Furthermore, she was forced to marry him after which he sexually violated her. Shoaib and his entire family subjected her to both physical and mental torture. The girl discovered an opportunity on 3 December and went to her aunt’s (mother’s sister) house first before returning to her village. She then narrated the entire ordeal to her family.
संदर्भित प्रकरण में शिकायतकर्ता की तहरीर के आधार पर थाना स्थानीय पर सुसंगत धाराओं में अभियोग पंजीकृत कर अग्रिम विधिक कार्यवाही प्रचलित है ।
— Hardoi Police (@hardoipolice) December 4, 2023
The culprit and his family began looking when they couldn’t find her inside the house and arrived at Hardoi. After a while, they forcefully started to take the teenager away from her home which led to a dispute between the two sides. The locals called the police on 112 to complain about the same. The cops immediately reached the location and arrested three persons who were arguing while other individuals fled from there after they saw them.
The police launched a case against Shoaib, Najma Khan, Aqib, Reshma and Mehraj along with five other unidentified people on the complaint of the victim under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Uttar Pradesh Law Against Religious Conversion Act. Three offenders are already in police custody.
According to Nripendra Singh, Additional Superintendent of Police of Hardoi the matter is being probed and appropriate legal action would be taken taken. He added that the police at present are searching for the absconding offenders.
