UP court sentences man to life for love Jihad: Muslim man convicted for luring Hindu girl for marriage

UP court sentences man to life for love Jihad: Muslim man convicted for luring Hindu girl for marriage

In a landmark judgment, a Uttar Pradesh court sentenced a Muslim man to serve life imprisonment for the charge of "love jihad", a term coined to describe a campaign where Muslim men allegedly mislead Hindu girls in an attempt to transform them into Muslims. Those accused had actually been systematically targeting Hindu women for conversion to Islam through deception by having relationships on the pretext of love. Controversy over an infamous narrative called "love jihad" and religious conversions in India has flared up again.The case that involved this judgment was in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The accused, a Muslim boy, had taken money from a Hindu girl under the pretext of getting married to her. He had kept his religion from her and made friends with her. On marriage he influenced her to convert herself into Islam. She understood this as cheating and brought it to the notice of the police, and her lover was arrested. In the instant case, the court held that it was not an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern of religious conversion through devious means. The judge further observed that Muslim men are in a systemic and deliberate mode to target Hindu women and play upon the feelings of the latter by donning the garb of love with the sole intention of converting them to the fold of Islam. The court held such activities constituted "love jihad" and were a serious threat to social harmony. Love jihad' is a term that has been widely debated upon in India. Those on the side who believed the theory said people were actually being targeted and converted to other faiths through deceitful marriages, particularly in states like Uttar Pradesh, where allegations have cropped up quite frequently. It has been termed as a politically motivated label, and there is no documentary evidence regarding the systematic conspiracies that are alleged. The case also came at a time when the issue of interfaith marriages and religious conversion was still being debated in India, and many laws were being planned to be enacted within the country. Uttar Pradesh is already one of the states that passed anti-conversion laws with the aim of curbing forced religious conversions, especially by promoting interfaith marriages. While several defenders of anti-conversion laws hail this judgment as a precedent for other such cases, human rights activists have expressed reservations about the judgment, and stated that the judgment may infringe individual rights in the freedom to marry and convert freely. This judgment again marks the continuing tension between religious freedom and the perceived threats to social harmony in India.

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