Gujarat HC grants bail to man in ‘forced’ love jihad case

More chinks have appeared in Gujarat’s proclaimed first anti-love jihad case lodged two days after it strengthened a law against this, with the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday granting bail to the so-called accused husband following a joint plea by the Muslim man and the Hindu woman married in 2019.

The complainant woman had filed an FIR against her husband Sameer Qureshi and in-laws in a domestic disputes case two days after the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act came into force on June 15.

However, her complaint was allegedly converted into a love jihad case by the Vadodara Police. Sonal (name changed) had subsequently filed an affidavit in a local court that there was no forcible conversion and that her complaint was at best a domestic violence case.

Subsequently, she moved the Gujarat High Court seeking to quash her own FIR against her husband, following which the latter and his family members were arrested and sent to judicial custody. Sonal stated that she was not even aware that the FIR had been given a religious conversion angle.

Finally, she moved the quashing petition jointly with her accused husband stating that it was a family dispute that had been settled and there was no love jihad angle.

While the High Court has granted bail to her husband and his two relatives, it would take a call on the quashing petition shortly given that the public prosecutor pleaded for more time.

The complainant — a 25year old woman married to a 21-year-old Muslim man — already submitted in her petition that the FIR registered is an “incorrect, untrue and exaggerated version of the information” given by her that “arose out of a petty and trivial domestic matrimonial dispute”.

The man and his family members had been named as accused in the FIR. However, the couple, in their plea to quash the FIR, stated that the issue has since been resolved and they wish to continue with their marital relations.