By PTI
MUZAFFARNAGAR: Police on Thursday said they have “rescued” two women from Khatauli town here, who were allegedly lured and converted to Islam by men who then married them.
The district police said they handed over Anjali alias Anjum Khan and Chaya Dixit alias Zoya Khan to police teams in Hamirpur and Jhansi respectively, where their family members had lodged complaints of abduction in the two separate cases.
But other versions suggested that the women had eloped with the men that they were in relationship with.
The two men, Monu Khan and Rehman Khan, have absconded, police said, adding some Hindu activists have demanded their arrest.
An FIR was registered at Rath police station under Section 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage).
It was not immediately clear whether Hamirpur and Jhansi police have also registered cases under Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law, which critics claim is often misused.
“The woman (Anjali) was rescued and brought to Hamirpur.
We can’t say anything till she gives her statement,” Harimpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Narendra Kumar Singh said.
Meanwhile, a 25-year-old man and two others were arrested in Gujarat’s Vadodara city on Thursday under a new law for allegedly forcing his wife to convert after marriage and also for domestic violence, police said.
Mohib Pathan, his brother Mohsin and their father Imtiyaz Pathan were arrested by Fatehgunj police under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, which came into force on June 15.
The controversial legislation provides for punishment ranging from three to ten years in prison.
The three accused were also booked under IPC sections 354 (outraging modesty of woman), 498-A(domestic violence) and 377 (unnatural sex), Assistant Commissioner of Police Paresh Bhesania told reporters.
Mohib’s wife, a Hindu, had lodged a complaint on Wednesday alleging that he deceived her by claiming that she will not be forced to covert to Islam after marriage, the ACP said.
“But soon after the marriage last year, Mohib and his family started pressuring her to convert and also changed her name. The victim also claimed that Mohib forced her into unnatural sex and thrashed her on a few occasions,” said Bhesania.
The woman also accused Mohib’s brother Mohsin of harassing her and alleged that her father-in-law refused to give money for her delivery three months ago and asked her to get money from her parents, the officer said.
This is the second FIR registered in Vadodara city in a week under the stringent anti-conversion law which seeks to punish forcible or fraudulent conversion through marriage.
A week ago, Gotri police had arrested a Muslim man for allegedly luring a Hindu woman into marriage by posing as Christian.