Assam Police arrested 9 members of a Love Jihad gang operating in rural areas of Assam’s Barpeta and Nalbari districts, reports Hindu Voice.

“We arrested 8 youth and 1 woman. All youths are operating in the name of Rahul,” said Barpeta SP Amitava Sinha. He added that these youth trapped and groomed girls from economically weak backgrounds by professing to ‘love’ them; sometimes they would promise to get them jobs. Later, they brought the girls to Guwahati from where they were trafficked to Haryana for anywhere between INR 1.5 to 3 lakhs.

Police said that they stumbled upon this ‘Rahul Gang’ after receiving a complaint where the victim girl said that she had a relationship with a youth named Rahul who later trafficked her. Later, police got information from other police stations about similar cases. In all cases, a youth named ‘Rahul’ was found to have trapped the girls in love affairs and then trafficked them to Haryana.

Later, a team of Barpeta police arrested a youth named ‘Rahul’ from Nalbari. During interrogation, it became known that his real name is Akhtar Ali but he was operating under the Hindu alias ‘Rahul’ to groom and trap girls.

By interrogating Akhtar Ali, police got to know about the ‘Rahul Gang.’ They launched a massive manhunt and arrested a total of 9 persons, including one woman- Akhtar Ali alias Rahul, Aleda Begum, Nur Muhammad alias Rahul, Anwar Hossain alias Rahul, Saddam Hossain alias Rahul, Ashraful Alam alias Rahul, Sajjad Hossain alias Rahul, Dilbar Hossain alias Rahul and Jaidur Hossain alias Rahul.

Police said that first the gang brought the girls to Guwahati. Then, the girls were taken to Haryana separately by train. This gang was operating for a few years and trafficked and sold more than hundred girls.

The name ‘Rahul’ is commonly used in movies by heroes, and seems to have been especially chosen by the accused to appeal to vulnerable, emotionally-susceptible Hindu teenage girls.

As the twitter handle @GemsOfBollywood said in a series of perceptive tweets – “Its not Love J. It is Lust J #Urduwood is biggest enabler. Creates stories of women eloping with sadakchhaap (roadside) Romeos against parents’ wishes. Portrays parents as villains if they object to lust with sadakchhaaps played by SRK, Saif etc….After watching DDLJ, a vulnerable girl only remembers that to be heroine a girl must keep Karwa Chauth for a sadakchhaap SRK instead of own groom. Half don’t even remember he pretended to be Rahul….Ironically, a lot of psychos into Lust J and crime take name of Rahul or Prem hiding their real names.”

While the report on this Assam-based ‘Rahul Gang’ does not mentioned which part of Haryana the girls were being trafficked to, there is a good chance that the Muslim-dominated Mewat/Nuh region is involved. Punjab & Haryana’s capital Chandigarh has also gained a reputation as a hub of women trafficking, especially the Manimajra area.

There have been similar reports of Hindu girls being trapped in love affairs, and then blackmailed or threatened to enter ‘dance orchestras’ (a gateway to prostitution) in Bihar. Muslim-heavy Seemanchal region of Bihar, where Owaisi’s AIMIM recently recorded ground-breaking electoral victories, is rife with the problem of women trafficking. One Mohd. Kalam alone stands accused of trafficking around 500 women to Chandigarh, with police like Kishanganj SP Inamul Haque and local MLA Izhar Asfi (earlier with AIMIM, now with RJD) allegedly in cahoots with the traffickers or happy turning a blind eye.