27-YR-OLD HELD UNDER MP’S NEW ‘LOVE JIHAD’ LAW

BHOPAL: A 27-year-old man has been arrested under the newly enacted MP Freedom of Religion Ordinance 2020, police officials said on Wednesday. He has also been booked for rape, the officials said.

The state government introduced the law with an aim to regularize conversion and prohibit conversion and attempted conversion through “misrepresentation, allurement, threat, force, undue influence, coercion, marriage and any fraudulent means.”

The action against Mohammad Arshad was taken after a 23-year-old woman filed a complaint with the police, officials in Bhopal said.

Bhopal south additional superintendent of police Rajesh Chandel said, “Arshad was arrested under sections for rape and under section 3 and 5 of MP Freedom of Religion Act, which has a provision of punishment from two to 10 years on the complaint of a 23-year-old woman on Wednesday afternoon.”

“According to the complaint, Arshad met the woman in 2019 and introduced himself as Ashu Singh. Later, the man raped her on the pretext of marriage. The woman came to know about his real identity in March 2020. He proposed marriage in March 2020 and started forcing her for conversion. The woman stopped talking to him.

Earlier, on Tuesday, a 28-year-old man was arrested under the new law in Barwani district on a complaint of a woman.