Alert sounded after communal tension grips Meerut
SENSITIVE Row erupts after an alleged bid to convert a woman teacher
Communal tension gripped Meerut on Sunday evening when an angry mob came out on the road in Kharkhauda area to protest against an alleged attempt to convert a young madarsa teacher. The culprits also allegedly gangraped her.
DGP AL Banerjee said in Lucknow that an alert had been sounded in Meerut and neighbouring districts. Police force has been deployed in Kharkhauda police station area. The district administration, meanwhile, has divided Sarawa village, where the madarsa is situated, into a sector to maintain law and order and senior police officers are camping in the village.
The teacher was allegedly compelled to adopt the religion of a community in a madarsa of Hapur district and then taken to Muzaffarnagar and kept in confinement in a house there for three days.
T he 20- year- old woman somehow managed to escape from the clutches of the abductors, reached Kharkhauda on Sunday and narrated her tale to her family. She also alleged that she was gangraped during the confinement.
A case has been lodged against the madarsa’s moulvi, the village pradhan and their aides who allegedly plotted the
A NAMED FIR AGAINST FOUR PERSONS HAS BEEN LODGED AND TWO OF THEM HAVE BEEN ARRESTED. ALLEGATION OF GANGRAPE IS ALSO BEING PROBED
K SATYANARAYAN, DIG, Meerut
conversion plan.
Meanwhile, police have arrested village pradhan Nawabkhan and madarsa moulvi Sannaullah on the complaint of the girl. “A named FIR against four persons has been lodged and two of them have been arrested,” said DIG of Meerut range K Satyanarayan.
The DIG added: “We are probing the allegation of gangrape and the woman has been referred for medical examination.”
The woman was a regular teacher of Hindi and English in the Sarawa village madarsa in Kharkhauda area.
In her complaint she alleged that the village pradhan and maulvi Sannaullah and a few of their aides took her to the madarsa of Dautai village of Hapur district on July 30, a day after Eid. There she was compelled to convert and her name was also allegedly changed. They then took her to Muzaffarnagar where she was kept in confinement.
The girl’s family had lodged a missing complaint in Kharkhauda police station on July 30 itself.
The conversion news spread like a wildfire and hundreds of people gathered outside the police station where they raised slogans and demanded stern action against the culprits.
Meanwhile, Meerut-Hapur MP Rajendra Aggarwal and many BJP leaders arrived at the spot and demanded stern action against the culprits. “The SHO of Kharkhauda police station Dinesh Kumar has been removed and of ficials have assured strict action in the case,” said Aggarwal, who termed the incident “unfortunate” and held the SHO responsible for the crime.
Meanwhile, in Muzaffarnagar, the district administration raided a religious education centre but found no girl being held captive there. The raid was carried out after district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma and senior superintendent of police HN Singh received information that the Kharkhauda madarsa teacher had told police in Meerut that 20 more girls were still being detained at the place in Muzaffarnagar where she was held captive.
Later, the DM and the SSP told reporters 258 girls were found registered at the educational institution, but most of them had gone home for a festival.