The Bombay High Court, granting anticipatory bail to the Muslim woman, held that the relationship could not be termed as love jihad as the boy and the girl belonged to different religions. A division bench comprising Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Abhay Waghwase passed the order and granted anticipatory bail to the accused who were denied relief by the local court.
A woman’s ex-lover has alleged that he was forced to convert to Islam and undergo circumcision. His lawyer, the woman, opposed the anticipatory bail applications of her family members and also argued that it was a “love jihad” case. Love jihad is a term used by Hindu right-wing organizations to claim, without evidence, that there is a widespread conspiracy to lure Hindu women into Islam through marriage. However.. the victim here is a person.
The High Court rejected Love Jihad’s argument, pointing out that in the First Information Report, the man had admitted to being in a relationship with the woman and had not given up on the relationship despite several chances. “Just because the boy and the girl belong to different religions, it has no religious dimension. It could be a case of pure love for each other,” the court said.
The division bench said that in recent times it seems that everything has been tried to give a love-jihad color, but when love is accepted, it is less likely that the person will be stuck for converting to another’s religion. According to the prosecution case, the man and woman were in a relationship since March 2018. The youth in this case belongs to a Scheduled Caste community. But this matter was not revealed to the woman.
Later, he said, the woman started insisting that he convert to Islam and marry her, after which the man revealed his caste identity to her parents. They did not object to his caste identity, persuading their daughter to accept it. But later the relationship soured. The man then filed a case against the woman and her family in December 2022. The high court, while granting anticipatory bail to the woman and her family members, said that the investigation was almost over and hence there was no need for their custody.
Sangli court sentences woman to ten years in prison for sexually abusing a minor girl
A court in Maharashtra’s Sangli district on Wednesday sentenced a woman and a man to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for sexually abusing a minor girl. Additional Sessions Judge AH Mahatme convicted the 49-year-old woman under Indian Penal Code sections 373 (procuring a minor for prostitution) and 370 (human trafficking) and IPC section 376(2) (punishment for rape).
The 25-year-old was also fined Rs 75,000 under the relevant provision of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act. The court said that Rs.50,000 should be given to the girl. The convicted woman brought the victim to her home in 2017 on the pretext of paying attention to her studies. According to the police, he forced the minor girl to dance in religious gatherings.
The young man had sex. He said that the woman tortured the victim many times and tried to get her married to an old man from Pandharpur town of Solapur district and took gold ornaments from him in return. Police said that once the young woman was tied to a tree and beaten with a stick. The victim somehow managed to free herself from the clutches of the woman and lodged a complaint against the accused at the Kupwad police station in Sangli district in 2019, police said.
