Zero Evidence Found, UP Police to Drop Charges Against Brothers Booked Under ‘Love Jihad’ Law
An FIR was earlier registered against brothers Nadeem and Salman for allegedly trying to unlawfully convert a woman to another religion but no evidence has been found against them, said Dharmendra Pal, SHO of Mansurpur police station where the case was filed.
MUZAFFARNAGAR LAST UPDATED: JANUARY 08, 2021, 12:59 IST
The police in Muzaffarnagar have given a clean chit to two men charged under Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law for allegedly trying to change the religion of a woman, an official said.
An FIR was earlier registered against brothers Nadeem and Salman for allegedly trying to unlawfully convert a woman to another religion but no evidence has been found against them, said Dharmendra Pal, SHO of Mansurpur police station where the case was filed.
The duo was charged under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, and Indian Penal Code sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation), he said.
The Allahabad high court, which is hearing an appeal in connection with the case, has been informed that there is no evidence that the two men tried to change the woman’s religion.
Recently, a Muslim teenager from Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor was arrested and has been in jail for a week after a case was filed for ‘love jihad’ under the state’s new ‘anti-conversion’ law after he walked home from a birthday party with his former classmate, a Dalit girl.
The 16-year-old girl has repeatedly and vehemently denied the allegations of ‘love jihad’, and said the boy was a friend of hers. “I have told this to the magistrate, and I will say this again. Those men had a problem with me walking with my friend. They made videos of me and are now calling it love jihad. I did nothing wrong. I went of my own free will,” she had said.
The boy was arrested on December 15 and was slapped with charges under sections of the SC/ST Act, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The FIR was registered purportedly based on a complaint by the girl’s father, which reportedly stated that the accused “induced the girl to elope with him” with the “intention to marry and convert her”.
