Uttar Pradesh police Tuesday arrested four Muslims, including a 22-year-old woman, her parents, and a mosque Imam, for alleged “forcible conversion of a 16-year-old boy and solemnising his nikah with the woman.”
“We have arrested the woman, her parents, and also the cleric, who solemnised the marriage,” said the local SHO. “We have launched a search for the aunt of the woman who made arrangements for the marriage. All the accused are being questioned,” he added.
The arrest comes following Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad workers created a ruckus at the Kakadeo police station.
Police have booked the four persons under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and provisions of the draconian anti-conversion law, Indian Express reported. Police have also invoked IPC sections 363 (kidnapping) and 342 (wrongful confinement).
The arrestees are Mohammad Hanif (42), his wife Jameela Bano (40), and their daughter Simran (24), and a mosque Imam Tauheed (52).
“On Monday, I came to know that my 16-year-old son has adopted Islam and married a woman, who has a four-year-old daughter. My son’s friend told me that he (son) was in touch with the woman for the last year. The woman’s relative lives near the shop where my son works… They brainwashed my son,” Indian Express quotes as the boy’s mother saying.
The boy’s mother told the police that the Muslim family forcibly converted his son to Islam after kidnapping him.
“It is a serious matter. The video of the marriage is being examined. The investigation is on,” Joint Police Commissioner (Kanpur) Anand Prakash Tiwari said.
Bajrang Dal’s Kanpur Prant Suraksha Pramukh Ashish Tripathi said to the newspaper that initially the police did not take the matter seriously and did not file an FIR on the complaint lodged by the boy’s mother.
