Members of right-wing group Bajrang Dal had accosted the two men and the 22-year-old woman at the marriage registration office and stopped them from going ahead with the registration formalities.
Arrested and jailed under Uttar Pradesh’s new law against “unlawful” conversion in Uttar Pradesh aimed to curb the ‘Love Jihad’, a Muslim man and his brother were freed this morning after spending nearly two weeks in prison in Moradabad district. According to sources, the UP Police was unable to find any evidence of forced conversion against them, NDTV reported.
Earlier this month, the man was arrested with his brother, after he tried to get his marriage registered with a 22-year-old Hindu woman in Moradabad’s Kanth area. A right-wing group, the Bajrang Dal, heckled the couple and the pregnant woman was taken to a shelter after the men were arrested. The government, however, has refused the claim that she was given an injection “to induce miscarriage”.
The man, after stepping out prison, said: “What can I say. We married with consent. I spent 15 days in jail. I am very happy today.” When asked if police have misused the new law, he refused to comment.
Members of right-wing group Bajrang Dal had accosted the two men and the 22-year-old woman at the marriage registration office and stopped them from going ahead with the registration formalities, after which the men were handed over to the police.
In one minute long video, that made rounds on the social media, the men from Bajrang Dal can be seen surrounding the woman at the police station. “Show us the permission you have from the DM (District Magistrate) to convert your religion,” a man is heard telling her in the presence of two policemen.
Another man said: “Have you read the new law or not? Ye tum jaise logon ke liye banana pada hai (the law had to be made for people like you)”.
Four months before the law came into force, the couple married in July, the woman had told reporters. “I am an adult, I am 22 years old. I got married of my own free will on the 24th of July. This is the fifth month that we have been married,” she had said.
First kept at a shelter by the Moradabad Police but later released by the magistrate, the woman later alleged that a government doctor gave her an injection “to induce a miscarriage”. However, the government doctors and police denied the allegations. The woman was hospitalized twice in three days over complaints of stomachache, bleeding and spotting, NDTV reported.
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