The Madhya Pradesh police on Monday arrested one Shamim Khan, a government school teacher, for sexual assault and forced conversion of a minor Hindu girl.
According to Swarajya journalist Swati Goel Sharma, Khan had an affair with the girl’s mother and posted a clip of their sexual act on Twitter.
Khan reportedly befriended a poor Hindu woman and converted her to Islam. He then molested the daughter of the Hindu woman, due to which she left her studies in class 11. He later pressurised her to convert to Islam following which she filed a complaint against him.
Khan has been arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to kidnapping, sexual assault, and forced conversions. The official Twitter account of Rashtra Jyoti, an organisation dedicated to helping victims of atrocities and making their voices heard, tweeted a copy of the FIR filed against Khan.
The menace of love jihad and forced religious conversions
The menace of Love jihad, where Muslim men are targeting susceptible and vulnerable non-Muslim women, lured and brainwashed, forcefully converted to Islam, tortured, raped, and then either killed or abandoned, has rapidly been spreading its tentacles in various parts of the country including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, and Bihar.
In March 2020, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh government, in an attempt to curb the nefarious practice in the state, cleared the bill that criminalises ‘Love Jihad’ (Grooming Jihad) and other forms of illegal conversions. The 2021 Act provides for up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh for religious conversion through coercion, force, allurement, and fraudulent means and misrepresentation, including marriages solemnised through fraudulent means.
Earlier this month, Indore police arrested a 32-year-old Muslim man has been arrested for forcing his Hindu wife to convert to Islam. The accused has been identified as Rubab Shah. In her complaint, the accused’s wife stated that she met the man while working in a private hospital and was “trapped” into getting married to the accused in 2015.