New Delhi: Two people have been apprehended days after a viral clip showed Bajrang Dal workers targeting an interfaith couple at a hotel in Bhopal’s Gautam Nagar area, dragging a Muslim man out of the premises on suspicion of ‘love jihad’.
‘Love jihad’ is a conspiracy theory floated by Hindutva outfits to suggest that Muslim men trap Hindu women in romantic relationships to convert them to Islam. In 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had told Parliament that the Indian law has no provision defining such a term.
On Wednesday, the duo was arrested and charged under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections related to rioting and common intention. “One of the accused is a juvenile and will be produced before the Child Welfare Committee,” Awadhesh Singh, in charge of Govindpura police station, told ThePrint.
An FIR was registered Tuesday against unknown persons after the Association for Protection of Civil Rights submitted a written complaint on 10 May. This was after the video showed men carrying saffron flags and claiming to be Bajrang Dal members, beating up the Muslim man, identified as Arif Khan, in the presence of the police.
“Everyone should see what happens when Muslim men commit love jihad,” one of the men says in the video. Apart from beating the victim, the group of men is seen throwing ink and cow dung at the victim.
Earlier, Singh had said that the police were trying to identify the individuals seen in the clip. A day later, the police identified five individuals as Rohit Singh, Brijendra Prajapati, Jitu Kushwaha, Ranjit Suryavanshi, and Lala Ram Meena.
Kuldeep Sisodia, a Bajrang Dal leader in Madhya Pradesh, told ThePrint that two of the outfit’s members had been arrested following the circulation of the video. “Our karyakartas had received information from informers that a Jihadi was staying with a Hindu behen (sister), so we took action against that,” he said.
According to the written complaint accessed by The Print, Khan, a resident of Jahangirabad, was dragged out from the hotel and assaulted for allegedly committing ‘love jihad’.
But, the 27-year-old’s partner told the Bhopal police that she had “consensually stayed with Khan and has been in a relationship with him for the past seven years”, the police station in charge said.
The complainants have submitted a written letter and a pen drive where evidence related to hurting of religious statements has been found, read the FIR accessed by The Print.
(Edited by Tony Rai)