A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly sentenced a Muslim man to life imprisonment in a case of rape after finding that he had deceived the victim by presenting himself to be a Hindu and marrying her at a temple.
Additional Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar also commented on what he termed as 'love jihad' and remarked that Muslim men systematically target Hindu women for conversion to Islam through marriage by pretending to love them.
“As in the above case, the accused Mohd. Alim told victim his Hindu name as Anand and deceived her, married her according to Hindu customs and rituals and raped her and also made her photographs and videos and thereafter raped her multiple times,” the Court said.
It also commented that that “main objective of love jihad” is to establish supremacy over India as a party of “demographic war and international conspiracy by some anarchist elements of a particular religion”.
“In simple words, love jihad is the practice of Muslim men to convert women from non-Muslim communities to Islam by pretending to love them and marrying them. Illegal conversions through love jihad are carried out by some anarchist elements of a particular religion or are made to do so or are involved in a conspiracy. Some anarchist elements are the ones who carry out the above acts, but the entire religion gets defamed. A huge amount of money is required for love jihad. Hence, the fact of foreign funding in love jihad cannot be ruled out,” the Court added.
The judge also observed that no one can be given a right to convert by force.
“If someone is converted illegally by force, by lying, by fraud or by force or by giving greed, then definitely action should be taken under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. No matter who that person is,” the Court said.
It went on to state that illegal conversions “through love jihad” are done to fulfill some other “big purpose” and called upon the Union government to take note.
“If the Indian government does not stop illegal conversions through love jihad in time, then the country may have to face serious consequences in the future.”
It further said illegal conversions cannot be taken lightly as they are a big threat to the country's unity, integrity and sovereignty.
“The crime of illegal conversion of Hindu girls by trapping them in love through love-jihad is being carried out on a large scale by an opposing gang i.e. syndicate, by brainwashing the weaker sections of non-Muslims, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC communities, women and children, by speaking ill of their religion, by making derogatory comments about the gods and goddesses, by applying psychological pressure and by luring them with various types of temptations like marriage, job etc., so that conditions like Pakistan and Bangladesh can be created in India too. In this regard, it is also noteworthy that in the case in question, the plaintiff/victim also belongs to the OBC category and an attempt has been made to convert her illegally through love-jihad.”
According to the Indian Express, the case dates back to May 2023 when a woman lodged a complaint against the accused Mohammad Alim, his father Sabir Alam and others of putting pressure on her to convert.
The Court held that Alim married the victim by deceiving her at Radha Krishna temple and then raped her
The Court convicted him for rape under Section 376 of IPC.
The Court has also convicted Alam under Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code. He has been sentenced to two years imprisonment, as per the media reports.
Since Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act was not invoked in the case, the Court ordered that a copy of the judgment be sent to Senior Superintendent of Police, Bareilly.
The Court said the SSP should ensure that the police register cases under the anti-conversion law in such cases "so that action can be taken in accordance with the intention of the legislature of Uttar Pradesh in passing the above Act."
It also forwarded the judgment to the State Director General of Police (DGP) and Chief Secretary for strict enforcement of the law.
Interestingly, judge Diwakar was recently in the news after the High Court was informed that there was security threat to the judge after he passed an order in the Gyanvapi - Kashi Vishwanath case.
Judge Diwakar had ordered a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi mosque premises in 2022.
Subsequently, it was reported that an ongoing investigation by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad revealed a conspiracy by Islamic fundamentalist forces running Instagram account to kill judge Diwakar.
In light of the same, Lucknow District and Sessions Judge had written to the Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court requesting security for judge Diwaker.
[Read Order]