The story of a lady who was an alleged ‘complainant’ towards her Muslim companion that led to his imprisonment for months.
Muzaffarnagar, India – In June final yr, authorities within the district of Muzaffarnagar in north India’s Uttar Pradesh state arrested a 22-year-old Muslim man on expenses of fraud, sexual assault and compelled spiritual conversion.
Officers claimed the complainant was Amandeep Kaur, a 24-year-old Sikh lady from the person’s neighbourhood.
Constituting almost 1.7 p.c of its inhabitants, India is dwelling to the biggest variety of Sikhs on this planet. Regardless of repeated makes an attempt by Hindu supremacist teams to membership the group underneath a wider Hindu umbrella, the Sikhs preserve they're an impartial faith.
“It was a case of affection; they turned it into one thing known as ‘love jihad’,” Kaur advised Al Jazeera as she locked the doorways of the small home she shared together with her mother and father.
“Love jihad” is a time period utilized by the Hindu political and spiritual proper to explain an alleged phenomenon the place Muslim males lure Hindu girls into marrying them and changing to Islam. Hindu teams declare, with out proof, it's a conspiracy of an organised racket.
A yr after her relationship with Usman Qureshi grew to become a public spectacle, Kaur right now fears unknown faces – the media or anyone providing to “assist”. However she reiterates she isn't a sufferer – Qureshi was her consensual companion for greater than two years.
The couple’s ordeal started in October 2020 when the excessive courtroom in Uttar Pradesh deemed spiritual conversions solely for marital functions “unacceptable”.
Days later, Yogi Adityanath, the saffron-robed Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) chief minister of the state recognized for his anti-Muslim hate speech and insurance policies, gave a peculiar ultimatum.
Addressing a crowd in Jaunpur district forward of state meeting by-elections, Adityanath swore to guard the “honour and dignity of girls”, particularly towards the phenomenon of “love jihad … at any value”.
“I warn those that conceal their identification and play with our sisters’ respect: in case you don’t mend your methods, your ‘Ram Naam Satya’ [a Hindu funeral chant] journey shall start,” he mentioned.
A month after his speech, Adityanath’s authorities handed the Prohibition of Illegal Conversion of Faith Ordinance.
The ordinance, which grew to become legislation in February 2021, declared spiritual conversion “by means of marriage, deceit, coercion, or enticement” a non-bailable offence, with the accused dealing with as much as 10 years in jail if discovered responsible.
In June 2021, Kaur’s father was summoned to a neighborhood police station. Unaware of the explanation, the 63-year-old retired sugar mill employee abided.
“Once I reached dwelling from work, I realised my father had been within the police station for greater than two hours. I knew one thing was not proper. However it's only once I reached there myself that I realised that this was not about him in any respect. It was about me,” Kaur, the youngest of three siblings, advised Al Jazeera.
When she reached the police station, she noticed a number of males in black and saffron clothes sitting round her father. She was requested to attend.
The lads surrounding her father claimed to be related to Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the far-right Hindu nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP).
Apprehensive of the gang, Kaur took out her cell phone to seek the advice of her elder brother dwelling within the nationwide capital, New Delhi. However earlier than she might dial, her telephone was snatched away by one of many males.
The cacophony of voices concurrently echoed sentiments of pity and rescue. The lads mentioned they wished to avenge her forceful spiritual conversion from Amandeep Kaur to “Jannat Qureshi” by her former Muslim companion.
Our personal lives have been made political instruments.
When requested in regards to the concentrating on of Muslim males by Hindu right-wing teams in alleged “love jihad” instances, a New Delhi-based member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who requested anonymity, advised Al Jazeera: “I'm not conscious of any surveillance or involvement of Hindu organisations in such anti-conversion instances.”
The RSS, shaped in 1925 alongside the strains of European Nazism, is the ideological mentor of the BJP and most different Hindu supremacist teams in India. The organisation counts Prime Minister Narendra Modi amongst hundreds of thousands of its lifetime members.
Kaur later got here to know that a faux Fb account was created together with her new Muslim identify and a photograph of her and Qureshi.
“A pal forwarded that Fb profile to me and I used to be baffled. The show photograph was one Usman and I had taken once we have been in a relationship, and he would usually lovingly name me ‘Jannat’ [heaven in Urdu]. However neither did we ever get married, nor was there any Jannat Qureshi,” she mentioned.
Scared of involving the police within the matter, she tried to seek out the supply of the social media account by means of acquaintances and native cybercafes, however failed.
The Bajrang Dal males continued to hound Kaur to file a case towards Qureshi. She repeatedly refused, saying there was no case to file. All she wished was to contact her mom and escort her frail father dwelling.
However the dialog quickly turned aggressive and the considerations of the lads had modified to threats. She was hurled with abuses, with the lads saying neither she nor her father can be allowed to go dwelling till she filed a grievance.
Apprehensive of their actions and seeing the situation of her father, she agreed to put in writing and signal no matter it took to flee from there.
“I might see every thing however not tears in my father’s eyes,” she mentioned.
A police grievance towards Qureshi – with whom she had separated and who was now married to a Muslim lady – was her sole saviour in that state of affairs.
After almost 5 hours of harassment and intimidation, Kaur was allowed to take her father dwelling.
The bogey of ‘love jihad’ is divisive, constructed on faux information, and designed to foster hatred and suspicion between spiritual communities.
Days later, on June 27, 2021, Qureshi was arrested. In line with the cost sheet filed by the police three months later, he had been accused of rape, breach of belief, dishonest and forgery. Three of the 5 expenses have been non-bailable.
Two clauses from the Prohibition of Illegal Conversion of Faith Act have been additionally imposed towards him. A separate prison case was filed towards Qureshi’s elder brother, Nadeem.
“My life modified the following morning. From my neighbours to my co-workers – everybody checked out me otherwise, spoke to me otherwise,” mentioned Kaur, an arts graduate who labored as an adviser at an insurance coverage firm.
The aftermath of a brand new “love jihad” case within the communally-sensitive city of Muzaffarnagar compelled her to remain dwelling. She was suggested to take a break from work.
Over the following six months, Kaur consulted a number of legal professionals and travelled to the native courtroom virtually each two weeks. Pressured to rely solely on her financial savings, she ran pillar to publish to show the instances towards Qureshi and his brother have been fabricated.
“Girls like Amandeep Kaur are victims of a state and its norms that are each communal and patriarchal. Underneath the garb of safety, they're remoted and compelled to combat a battle to be heard,” journalist Pamela Philipose advised Al Jazeera.
‘Non-public lives made political instruments’
Inside the first month of the implementation of the “love jihad” legislation in Uttar Pradesh in March 2021, police registered 16 instances involving as many as 86 individuals – 79 of them Muslims.
By November, the quantity swelled to 108 instances, naming 257 individuals. In a number of instances, the accused weren't simply the male companions of a Hindu lady, but in addition their relations and associates.
Nevertheless, the state authorities is but to furnish particulars on the complainants of the instances booked underneath the legislation.
“In a majority of instances underneath this anti-conversion legislation, the complainants haven't been the ladies allegedly victimised, however their relations. Regardless of searching for particulars, the state has not revealed a lot knowledge,” Akram Akhtar Choudhary, a human rights lawyer and co-founder of the collective, Archive Towards Humanity, advised Al Jazeera.
In September 2021, Choudhary filed a Proper to Info utility, searching for particulars of the instances registered underneath the legislation in 59 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Till now, solely 22 districts have responded, Muzaffarnagar being one in every of them.
“We investigated and filed the cost sheet. We aren't conscious of the trial proceedings thereafter,” a police officer in Khatauli advised Al Jazeera when requested about Qureshi’s case.
Kaur mentioned the police had no witness within the case of her alleged conversion to Islam.
“The one proof the cost sheet had of my alleged spiritual conversion was an identification card within the identify of Jannat Qureshi, daughter of Iqbal Qureshi. However that isn't me,” she mentioned.
“I by no means transformed, not to mention make a brand new identification doc.”
Nevertheless, not like different prison instances in India, the burden of proof doesn't lie on the prosecution underneath the “love jihad” legislation. The elemental authorized maxim – harmless till confirmed responsible – doesn't maintain true right here.
In line with the legislation, proving innocence past an inexpensive doubt is the duty of the individual inflicting the alleged spiritual conversion and people “facilitating” it.
“The bogey of ‘love jihad’ is divisive, constructed on faux information, and designed to foster hatred and suspicion between spiritual communities,” researcher and rights activist Navsharan Singh advised Al Jazeera.
After spending virtually 9 months in jail, Qureshi was granted bail in March this yr.
“My consent, company and fundamental rights have been violated. I don't assume I can overcome the trauma and harassment I used to be subjected to, and I can't think about what number of different girls like me are on the market,” Kaur advised Al Jazeera.
“Our personal lives have been made political instruments,” she mentioned, choking on her phrases.
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