A heart-wrenching story of love jihad has come to light in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior. Suman* revealed her story to the police about how she was trapped by one Imran who impersonated Raju Jatav.
It all began in January last year when Suman met Imran at a function. Imran introduced himself as Raju Jatav. The two started a friendship which soon metamorphosed into an intimate relationship.
When Suman broke the news to Raju that she was pregnant, he got worried and forced her to abort the child. Suman kept insisting on marriage.
In September last year, the two got married in a temple. A party was also hosted to celebrate the marriage. Once Suman reached Raju’s residence after the marriage, she got to know about his real identity. The harsh reality came to light that he was not Raju but Imran.
One Maulana Osama Khan visited Imran’s house to convince Suman to get married again to Imran as the earlier marriage was non-Islamic and so invalid. He also insisted that the new marriage would be valid only if she converted to Islam first.
On the pretext of converting her to Islam, Maulana Osama raped Suman.
Suman alleged that her mother-in-law Sugga Begum forced her into prostitution with the full consent of Imran and his brothers.
On April 20, Imran’s brother Punni Khan raped Suman in her room and moved out without locking the door. Finding an opportunity to free herself, Suman ran away and reached her maternal uncle’s home in Gwalior.
On April 23, Suman lodged a police complaint in Gwalior.
Gwalior Superintendent of Police Amit Sanghi said that an FIR was registered based on Suman’s complaint against Imran, his two brothers Aman Khan and Punni Khan, Maulana Osama Khan and Suggi Begum.
The police have arrested Imran and Suggi Begum. They are searching for the other accused. Taking action against Imran, the administration demolished his illegally constructed house.
Multiple cases of Love Jihad have been reported from Madhya Pradesh recently.
In the case of Love Jihad in Indore, Umed Khan impersonated as Rahul and trapped a 16-year-old Hindu girl. Khan, a driver, befriended the victim. After a few days, he started pressurising her for marriage.
He put the proposal of conversion as the first step towards marriage. The victim got suspicious. Then Umed revealed his identity and tried to blackmail her. When the victim refused, he started thrashing her.
An FIR in the case was registered when the victim’s family approached the police, and Umed was arrested.
In another case of Love Jihad in Madhya Pradesh’s Neemuch, the victim was forced to convert after marriage. The victim, a divorcee, had made it very clear before the marriage that she would not convert.
Fardeen had agreed to it. But after marriage, Fardeen and his family started pressurising the victim to convert.
In March last year, the Madhya Pradesh government passed an anti-conversion law to prevent such fraudulent marriages and conversions.
The state’s new ‘anti-conversion’ law has strict provisions to check forcible conversions. It is modelled on the anti-‘Love Jihad’ law of Uttar Pradesh. In the new Act, Section 3 prohibits unlawful conversion or attempt at conversion through misrepresentation, allurement, use of threat, force, undue influence, coercion, marriage or other fraudulent means. Section 5 defines punishment for those booked under Section 3 of the Act, with jail terms ranging from one to 10 years and a fine of 1 lakh rupees or both.
*Name of the victim has been changed to conceal her identity.
