The SOP would deal with cases where an inter-religious marriage or courtship under a false pretext is followed by religious conversion. “To sensitise police stations to deal with such cases, an SOP needs to be formed. If timely action is taken, tensions within the communities can be avoided. If timely action is not taken, action will be taken against the policemen involved,” Fadnavis said in the legislative assembly.
Want anti-conversion law in Maha, demand BJP leaders
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said that psychological help would be provided by the state to victims of love jihad.
“We have a Bharosa cell which provides psychological support,” he said in the legislative assembly.
Fadnavis, however, pointed out that if an adult woman marries according to her will, the law cannot act against the union. He also promised a probe into the case of a minor who was made to elope with a man from another community in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar’s Phulambre taluka.
In the legislative council on Wednesday, BJP group leader Pravin Darekar raised a demand for an anti-conversion law in the state akin to that in Uttar Pradesh and ensure the guilty get 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The motion had been moved by the party under Rule 260.
Darekar said that a number of Hindu women were being misled by men taking false names, pretending to be in love and forcibly converting them. “The marriage is a farce, later they are tortured and abandoned or killed,” he said. He was supported by BJP’s Prasad Lad.
On land jihad, Lad claimed that first illegal religious structures are built on a piece of land and then other structures come up and pressure is mounted on police through morchas. He further alleged that the funding is through illegal sand mining, sale of liquor and gambling.
“Police are paid Rs 5 lakh for each illegal religious conversion,” Lad said.
