‘Love jihad’: 3 years, four FIRs in 6 Haryana dists, 2 found false, reveals RTI info

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 3

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Even as the state government plans to table a Bill on “love jihad” in the Budget session of the Assembly, information obtained under the RTI has revealed that only four FIRs on the issue have been registered in six districts of Haryana in the past three years.

Of these, allegations in two cases have been found false, the accused was acquitted in one case, while the trial is still on in the fourth case.

PP Kapoor, an RTI activist from Samalkha town of Panipat, sought information from the Haryana DGP, State Commission for Women, and district police chiefs of various districts in November 2020 about FIRs of the nature of “love jihad” when Home Minister Anil Vij first announced about the government’s intention to bring a law on the issue in the wake of Nikita Tomar murder case in Ballabhgarh.

Nikita was killed outside her college in Ballabhgarh allegedly by Tausif, a youth from an influential political family, after the girl allegedly refused to accept his proposal for marriage.

Kapoor sought information about FIRs regarding “love jihad” cases registered from January 1, 2018, till the filing of replies, definition of the term, any evidence of foreign funding and information about girls saved from the “clutches” of “love jihadis”.

“The DGP office forwarded my application to the ADGP (Law and Order). But I am yet to receive any response after more than three months. The State Commission for Women said in its reply that the panel doesn’t have information on the issue,” said Kapoor.

Of the six districts to respond to Kapoor’s RTI pleas, no FIR has been lodged in Faridabad, Hisar and Yamunanagar in the past three years on the issue.

At Punhana in Nuh district, an FIR was registered on December 12, 2020, in which a Muslim youth was accused of having kidnapped a Hindu girl. However, the allegations were found to be false during investigation.

On May 18, 2018, a local court in Ambala acquitted the accused in an FIR registered in this regard, while the allegations in another FIR registered in the district on such charges was found false during investigation.

Investigation is still on in an FIR registered at Samalkha in Panipat on October 16, 2019.

Kapoor said many police officers were unaware of the definition of “love jihad”, while some others said the information about this could be accessed from Internet.

“I decided to seek information about FIRs registered for ‘love jihad’ after Vij’s announcement about the government’s intention to bring a law on this issue,” said the RTI activist.

He said the RTI replies had made it clear that the claims were untrue and even the initial FIR in the Nikita Tomar case nowhere mentioned that it was a case of “love jihad”.