Denying media reports that the FIR against three men under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020 and sexually stalking a girl in an alleged “love jihad” case in Bareilly had been expunged, police officials told The Hindu that the matter was still under investigation and an “impartial probe” would be done.
The Bareilly police made a statement on Saturday that during surveillance the boy’s mobile was not found in Faridpur on the day the girl alleged he asked her to convert and threatened to destroy her family.
“The surveillance report was not enough to expunge the FIR registered under Sections 354, 504 of IPC and Section 3/5 of the new ordinance. We spoke to the girl and she said that because of her mental state she did not remember the exact date. In her complaint she had said the incident happened on December 1, now she is saying it happened a day after. We are going to get her statement recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC. After that, we would make a press statement,” said Sansar Singh, Superintendent of Police (Rural), Bareilly.
Describing it as a case of “one-sided love spread over a period of time”, Alok Agrahari, Circle Officer, Faridpur, said the girl, a student of B.Sc Nursing approached the police on December 31 alleging that a boy had been threatening her to convert and marry her otherwise, he would destroy her family. In the FIR, she said that on December 1, the boy and his two brothers “stopped her and asked her to marry the boy and convert to Islam at gunpoint”. “She also mentioned that he had been stalking her for some time and that she has developed mental health issues.”
He said the boy was absconding and his family members were called to the police station for questioning. “The guilty would not be spared and no innocent person would be targeted,” he said.
Mr. Singh said the girl was in a relationship with the boy but when the family found out they married her to a man from her community on December 11. “But the boy continued to pursue the girl. In fact, he reached her in-laws place in Aonla on December 20,” said Mr. Singh.
Meanwhile, local Hindutva groups are protesting and pressuring the police to take swift action.
