Man arrested for trying to force wife to convert her faith

Bhopal: Dhanpur Police have arrested a man for allegedly trying to convert the faith of his wife in Madhya Pradesh's Dhanpur.

He got arrested on Monday from Shahdol.

Sub Divisional Officer of Police, Dhanpur, Bharat Dubey said, "They have been living together since 2018."

"The woman, a Hindu, has lodged a complaint, stating that the man, Irshad Khan, harassed her and his family members were pressuring her to adapt to their culture and learn Urdu and Arabic languages", added SDOP Dubey.

The accused has been arrested under various sections of Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1968.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh and three other BJP-ruled states – Karnataka, Assam, Haryana – have been mulling to bring a law against 'love jihad' after the Uttar Pradesh cabinet decided to introduce an ordinance, passing the law against unlawful religious conversion for the sake of marriage.

The ordinance provided a jail term of up to 10 years with Rs 15,000 penalty for forceful religious conversion.

The case of Nikita Tomar is an alleged case of 'love jihad'. The family if the victim alleged that the accused had forced Nikita to convert into Islamism.

The home minister of Madhya Pradesh, Narottam Mishra had announced that a 'love jihad' bill will be introduced in the state soon. The bill will include five-years of jail for the 'violater'.

Recently, the Uttar Pradesh government had registered its first case of 'love jihad' under the newly implemented anti-conversion law, accusing a Muslim man of trying to forcibly convert a Hindu girl.

A resident of Bareilly, Tikaram, filed the case at the Deorania police station against a youth named Uwaish Ahmed for allegedly threatening his daughter's life and forcing her to convert to Islam.

In Tikaram's complaint, he alleged that Ahmed was his daughter's classmate and they used to frequently talk to each other. However, the latter began to pressurise the girl to convert to Islam.

The Uttar Pradesh government had approved the ordinance – Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Bill 2020, that seeks to stop "forceful religious conversions", including marriage, on November 24.

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