Ludhiana police has now booked Mand, who is the joint co-coordinator of Kisan Congress, a wing of All India Congress Committee.KANPUR police Tuesday arrested four persons, including a 22-year-old woman, her parents and a cleric, for alleged forcible conversion of a 16-year-old boy and solemnising his nikah with the woman.
The matter came to light when a video of alleged nikah went viral last night.
“We have arrested the woman, her parents and also the cleric, who solemnised the marriage,” said the local SHO, adding they were investigating the role of other persons involved.
Police have booked the four persons under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping) and 342 (wrongful confinement). Police have also invoked the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and provisions of the anti-conversion law against the four accused – all residents of Kanpur. The woman, police said, was divorced two years ago.
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“On Monday, I came to know that my 16-year-old son has adopted Islam and married a woman, who has a four-year-old daughter. My son’s friend told me that he (son) was in touch with the woman for the last one year. The woman’s relative lives near the shop where my son works… They brainwashed my son,” the boy’s mother told The Indian Express.
In her complaint to the police, the boy’s mother alleged that a Muslim family forcibly converted his son to Islam after kidnapping him. “It is a serious matter. The video of the marriage is being examined. The investigation is on,” Joint Police Commissioner (Kanpur) Anand Prakash Tiwari said. The boy, who studies in Class VIII, has undergone a medical examination. His father works as a labourer.
Meanwhile, Bajrang Dal workers staged a protest at the local police station. Bajrang Dal’s Kanpur Prant Suraksha Pramukh Ashish Tripathi
said that initially the police did not take the matter seriously and did not file an FIR on the complaint lodged by the boy’s mother.
“After we came to know about the incident, we went to the police station and briefed the police officers about the seriousness of the case. They then lodged an FIR,” Tripathi added.
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