Shakib, 18, has been charged underneath stringent sections of the legislation the place bail is tough
Lucknow:
A younger Muslim teen in west Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor, 430 km from Lucknow, has spent over 20 days in jail after an incident final month the place he and a 16-year-old Hindu lady, strolling dwelling from a pal’s birthday occasion, had been ambushed, harassed and brought to a police station. The matter escalated to a case being filed underneath the state’s controversial new anti-conversion legislation.
At her village in Bijnor, 50-year-old Sanjeeda, the mom of 18-year-old Shakib, who’s now in jail awaiting a bail listening to this Friday – a widow with no mounted revenue – says she has nearly managed cash for a lawyer, as she fights again tears.
“I’m very distressed. When my husband was alive, I borrowed lakhs of rupees for his remedy. He died two years in the past. Nobody is keen to even give me cash to combat this case,” Sanjeeda informed NDTV.
Shakib was arrested on December 15 and jailed for allegedly attempting to forcibly convert the 16-year-old Hindu lady, a cost denied on the time by each the lady and her mom.
The Bijnor police, which had insisted the Muslim teenager was arrested on a grievance by the lady’s father, has gone forward and filed a chargesheet within the case, underneath stringent sections of the legislation the place bail is tough.
“We filed the case on December 15 and a police officer investigated it. Based mostly on proof, medical examination and the lady’s assertion earlier than a Justice of the Peace, we now have filed a chargesheet within the case underneath IPC, POCSO Act, SC/ST legislation and the conversion legislation,” says Dr Dharm Veer Singh, Bijnor’s police chief.
On the Hindu lady’s village, lower than 2 km from Shakib’s dwelling, her father in a short interplay with NDTV continued to insist it is a case of forcible conversion. “No, they cannot say this, you possibly can ask them once more,” he mentioned when requested about his daughter and mom saying on file there was no conversion angle to the matter.
However the lady and her mom had been each not at dwelling and the daddy and different villagers had been unwilling to reveal their location. Two weeks in the past, in interviews to NDTV, each of them had vehemently denied the police model. “Round 11.30 pm some folks caught maintain of us – the villagers beat us up. They accused us of theft. They caught one boy, I do not know who he was, and so they caught me. I didn’t know who the boy was. It isn’t true that he was attempting to transform me,” the lady had informed NDTV.
At each the kids’ villages, not many had been keen to debate the case on digicam or off it besides Vinod Saini, the pradhan or chief of the lady’s village who continues to assert the police cooked up the illegal conversion cost .
“I merely don’t assume this was a case of ‘love jihad’. I’ve already mentioned this, this case has been foisted identical to that. Each had been college students and so they used to fulfill one another,” Mr Saini informed NDTV.
The district’s police chief has rubbished the declare. “That is completely mistaken. We filed a chargesheet solely after statements and a medical examination and a courtroom assertion. Even as we speak the lady’s father and relations are sticking to their statements. Some individuals are attempting to entice the household to vary their statements and we’re retaining a watch on such folks and we’ll act towards them. We don’t act based mostly on any statements by a pradhan or politician. The motion relies on proof and courtroom statements,” the Bijnor police chief mentioned.
