Meerut police have arrested a 25-year-old tutor for allegedly kidnapping and trying to force his 18-year-old student to convert.
While the tutor Amaan was sent to jail on Wednesday night, the woman is now with her family after her statement was recorded before a magistrate at a court in Meerut.
The police said Amaan was the woman’s tutor and they had developed a friendship. He had asked the woman to elope with him and marry him after converting to Islam, police said.
“When she refused, Amaan threatened to kill her younger brother and under pressure, she left her parents’ place in Meerut Tuesday morning and went to Delhi with him,” said in-charge of the police station where the FIR was lodged.
The woman’s parents tried to locate her but failed and then lodged a complaint, identifying Amaan as the prime suspect in her abduction, police said.
“We lodged the FIR under IPC Section 362 (kidnapping) and traced the victim to a place in the national capital.We brought her to Meerut and then arrested Amaan.We have also added the relevant section of the UP anti-conversion ordinance to the FIR after she recorded her statement before the magistrate and alleged that Amaan forced her to convert at a mosque in Delhi,” said the in-charge of the police station.
On Tuesday, supporters of the Hindu Jagran Manch and Bajrang Dal staged a demonstration at the police station, demanding that police trace the woman at the earliest. “We are happy that we managed to save the Class XII student. A number of women have fallen victims to such a deep-rooted nexus for conversion in our state,” said Sachin Sirohi, chief of Hindu Jagran Manch’s state unit.