Lucknow, 28 Sept: In yet another example of ‘love jihad,’ a 30-year-old man was detained in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district for marrying a woman while pretending to be a Hindu and then tormenting her.
Ghule Sushil Chandrabhan, Superintendent of Police (Sitapur), stated that a case had been launched under applicable IPC sections and the accused had been apprehended based on a complaint filed by the woman at Laharpur police station. “Necessary action will be taken, and the woman’s safety will be ensured,” he added. According to Rajeev Singh, the in-charge of the Laharpur police station, the offender was identified as Mohd Wasim, who pretended to be a Hindu and told the woman his name was Arjun. He married her a little over a year ago.
Singh stated that the accused married the woman at a temple to disguise his identity, and she found his true identity after the marriage when family members of his previous wife came seeking for him.
He said that the woman was coerced into converting. Meanwhile, the accused said that he lives in Agra but is originally from Sitapur’s Tambor region. Singh stated that the accused was charged with fraud under IPC sections 420, 323 for willingly inflicting harm, 504 for insulting, and 506 for criminal intimidation.
“Section 3/5(1) of the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act has also been invoked against him,” he said, adding that the Religious Conversion Act was intended to prohibit unlawful conversion from one religion to another through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, and allurement, while the Indecent Representation of Woman Act was intended to prohibit indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures, or in photographs.
