Haryana is exploring the need for a law against interfaith relationships involving Hindu women and Muslim men in the wake of a stalker shooting dead a 21-year-old woman outside her college in Faridabad last week, the state’s home minister said on Sunday.
The comment by Anil Vij, also a senior member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came a day after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath promised to bring a law to regulate such relationships.
“Haryana is thinking of bringing a law against love jihad,” tweeted Vij. Love jihad is a term used by Hindu activists to describe relationships between Hindu women and Muslim men.
Vij said the state government was very concerned after a 20-year-old final-year-commerce student, Nikita Tomar, was shot dead last Monday by her stalker, Touseef Ahmad, after a botched abduction attempt outside her college in Ballabhgarh.
Images of the two suspects — Ahmad and his friend Rehaan -- were caught in CCTV footage and the duo was arrested from Nuh a day later amid widespread protests. Ahmad and Rehaan arrived in a Hyundai i20 and tried to force Tomar into the car as she came out of Aggarwal College after writing an exam, police said.
“In the Faridabad case also the family members of the deceased have alleged that the accused had mounted pressure for religious conversion. This is not acceptable and therefore we will have to think about it,” Vij said in a tweet.
{{/usCountry}}“In the Faridabad case also the family members of the deceased have alleged that the accused had mounted pressure for religious conversion. This is not acceptable and therefore we will have to think about it,” Vij said in a tweet.
{{/usCountry}}Vij said “love jihad attempts” were being made across the country. “We will discuss this issue with all the political parties as well as people as the issue requires a detailed discussion on various points after which a decision will be taken,” he said.
Vij said a special investigation team set up to investigate the murder will also probe if there were attempts at religious conversion and if a conspiracy was afoot on “love jihad” in Haryana.
Interfaith relationships have become a hot-button issue in several states, where Hindu activists allege that Muslim men “lure” gullible women for conversion. Many experts reject these allegations and say that adult men and women are free to convert under the constitutional right to freedom of religion.
In February, the central government told Parliament that there was no definition of the term and no such cases were reported by agencies.