An incident of grooming jihad/love jihad was reported in Bihar’s Katihar district when a Muslim youth, posing as Hindu on social media, befriended and married a Hindu girl and then started applying pressure on her for conversion.

The victim, named Julie, 29, a native of Manihari block in the district filed a case against Katihar district court seeking justice.

She met with youth named Raj Rajput on Facebook in 2015 and they became friend and even married in a temple.

“After the marriage, I requested him many times to take me to my in-laws house but he refused. When I applied pressure on him, he took me to his sister’s house. When I reached there, I went into shock as they are Muslim. When I asked his identity, he said that his name is Taukir Ahmed, a native of Supaul district,” Julie told media persons in Katihar.

“It was cheating. He had breached my trust but as I was in love with him and I also have a child, I stayed with him. Taukir, after few years, started applying pressure on me for conversion. At present, he is in Dubai for work and continuously applying pressure on me to convert to a Muslim. I complained to the local police in Maniari but they refused to register an FIR in this matter. Now, I filed an application with district court for justice,” Julie said.

In recent years, UP and other states like Himachal, Uttarakhand, MP, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana have reinforced or introduced anti-conversion laws to clamp down on conversions for the purpose of marriage, and other conversions carried out using various fraudulent means. It is time that Bihar too enact such a law, and in fact the same should be implemented nation-wide to maintain social and communal harmony.

(With IANS inputs)