Two Muslim Men Arrested Under Love Jihad Law In UP Freed By Court Due To Lack Of Evidence
The case had courted controversy after Pinki who was moved to a government shelter home following the arrest allegedly suffered a miscarriage. The woman had alleged that she lost her baby after the district hospital, where she had been admitted with bleeding and severe abdominal pain, administered ¡°injections¡±.
A court in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad has ordered the release of two brothers who were arrested earlier this month under the new anti-conversion law in the state.
The Muslim man and his brother were arrested on December 4 when he visited the registrar's office to record his marriage to a Hindu woman, whose family filed a complaint.
BCCL
A video purportedly showed Bajrang Dal activists asking the couple if the woman had given notice to the district magistrate over her intention to change her religion, a requirement under the new ordinance.
The Kanth police had submitted a report that it could not find evidence of the case after Pinki denied the allegations of forceful conversion by Rashid and his brother Salim, following which the chief judicial magistrate ordered the release of the brothers from jail, prosecuting officer Amar Tiwari said.
The jailor of the district jail, Manish, said they had received the releasing order and the two would be be released later in the day.
BCCL
The case had courted controversy after Pinki who was moved to a government shelter home following the arrest allegedly suffered a miscarriage.
The woman had alleged that she lost her baby after the district hospital, where she had been admitted with bleeding and severe abdominal pain, administered ¡°injections¡±.
The hospital, however, denied the allegations and claimed that they had only given her treatment for pain.
BCCL/FILE
The recently promulgated Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance nullifies marriages if they are carried out for the sole purpose of religious conversion. The punishment can extend up to 10 years if a minor is involved.
The Allahabad High Court had on Friday sought the response of the Uttar Pradesh government on a petition challenging the law.
The PIL was filed by advocate Saurabh Kumar, who challenged the constitutional validity of the ordinance against "forcible" and "fraudulent" religious conversions, including for the sake of marriage.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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