Love Jihad: New Variant

Stories of love jihad continue to trickle in continually in UP and other parts of the country. This one has a two-state dimension: West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

It all began ten years ago. Raju (40) a Muslim from Sardhana, a tehsil town in Meerut District of Uttar Pradesh, used to visit Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal in connection with cattle trade along with his maternal uncle, who also had a fake Hindu identity. The mama developed friendship with a Kolkatta Hindu family. This resulted in the Kolkatan father marrying off her daughter (17) to Raju. The ceremony was solemnised as per Hindu customs around the holy fire. Afterwards Raju began living in Kolkatta along with the Hindu girl very much as a Hindu husband. Three children were born. Thereafter, he took his family along to his old family house in Sardhana, Meerut.

The Hindu woman was crest-fallen when she came to know of the real identity of his husband– he was a Muslim, already married with four children, first wife having died about a decade back. In the new house, she was asked to convert to Islam, and then remarry Raju in a Muslim way. She refused. And then began her ordeal. From physical to mental torture, she was sought to be made a Muslim in a joint effort of Raju and his family that included his brothers and parents. She was usually kept in chains. Could never get out of four walls of the house.

On July 6, as Raju and most other of the family were gone out, the elder brother of Raju tried to rape her. She repelled with all her might, and came running out of the house, after full four years. Took her children along, she ran as fast as they could. Met some Hindu youths, told them her story. She was lucky as these young men belonged to the Bajrang Dal, who immediately rang up Balraj Dungar, the provincial convenor.

Balraj and other workers of Bajrang Dal, met the SSP of Meerut, Rajesh Pandey along with the Hindu woman. An FIR against Raju and eight other adult members of his family was lodged at Sardhana police station after the SSP directed them to do so. The police immediately swung into action. But the house was found to be locked. Raju and all others have been absconding ever since. The woman has been given in the custody of a local Hindu family. The victim has asked for her return to Kolkata, to her parents” home. But legal procedures have to be followed. She has all her children with her.

In a bizarre incident on July 10, a woman, Razia, of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, who was given triple talaq by her husband, Nahim, over phone and was allegedly locked up for a month without food and water died. She is survived by a six-year-old son. In first week of July, another woman from Mahoba (Uttar Pradesh) was given triple talaq and was forced to leave her husband’s house because the chapati she had prepared got burnt.

Razia was got married to Nahim of Basti about 13 years ago. Her sister Sara said Razia’s husband used to beat her up for dowry. First she was given triple talaq, then was kept confined inside a room without food and water. “After locking her up for a month in the house, he left her at a relative”s house. We went to the police to report the incident, but they did not register any case,” she said.