Bareilly: In his 42-page order (a copy of which is with TOI), the judge of a fast track court in Bareilly who sent a Muslim man, 25, to “jail for entire life” — even after the woman, 22, had changed her statement in court and said her initial deposition had come after “right wing men put pressure on my parents” — has explained in great detail what according to him “love jihad” is, going into its “nature, objective and funding”.
Additional district and sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar framed the case before him as an “example of love jihad”, adding that such cases involve “deceit and religious conversion”.
In his order, the judge — who had called for a videographic survey of Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque complex and the sealing of the wuzukhana (ablution area) in 2022 — said, “The primary aim of ‘love jihad’ is to alter demographics and stir international tensions, driven by radical factions within a religious group. Essentially, it refers to the deceptive conversion of non-Muslim women to Islam through fraudulent marriages.”
He added, “These illegal conversions are carried out by certain extremist individuals who either engage in or support such activities. However, it’s important to note that these actions are not reflective of the entire religious community. The process of ‘love jihad’ involves significant financial resources, and in this case, it is likely that foreign funding is involved.”
The case itself originated in May 2023 when the young woman lodged a complaint with police, saying that the accused, Mohd Aalim Ahmad, then 23, had initially introduced himself as Anand Kumar when they met at a coaching class in Bareilly in 2022. They got married in a temple on March 13, 2022, but the woman “later discovered” his real identity and claimed she had been misled into the marriage.
Aalim was charged with several crimes, including rape under section 376-2n, criminal intimidation under section 506, and voluntarily causing hurt under section 323 of the IPC. His father, Mohd Sabir, was also charged with criminal intimidation under section 504 and sentenced to two years in jail.
The woman had given a statement against the accused on July 31, 2024. But thereafter, she did not appear in court. After a warrant was issued, she was produced before court on Sept 19 this year but she changed her statement in favour of Aalim. The court refused to accept her updated statement “considering that she was influenced by the accused”.
The woman had then said, “I registered the FIR after right-wing groups pressured my parents.”
At one point, the judge in his order noted that the woman was “living separately from her parents in a rented house and using an expensive Android phone, despite being unemployed”, raising the question of foreign funding.
The order read: “The detailed analysis has made it clear that the case in question involves illegal religious conversion through love jihad. First, it is important to understand what love jihad is. In love jihad, Muslim men, through marriage, convert Hindu women to Islam in a planned manner. They marry Hindu women by showing love and then convert them…”
The judge said: “Love jihad requires a significant amount of money. Therefore, it cannot be denied that love jihad is funded by foreign funding in this case.”