NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) Chief Priyank Kanoongo visited Rahuri in Ahmednagar’s Maharashtra to probe the horrific Rahuri Love Jihad case in which minor girls were groomed by their tuition teacher Heena Sheikh.

NCPCR Chief Priyank Kanoongo & MLA Nitesh Rane raise questions on Nagar police

He was accompanied by Maharashtra State Child Rights Commission’s Sayali Palkhedkar during his visit on Sunday (August 6).

NCPCR Chief made several scathing observations on the Ahmednagar police’s role. He also hinted at writing about SP Rakesh Ola to the Union Home Ministry if the state government failed to act.

It must be mentioned that MLA Nitesh Rane highlighted the unprofessional and anti-Hindu behaviour of Ahmednagar Police’s Additional SP Swati Bhor a couple of days ago while speaking at the Hindu Jan Aakrosh Rally.

NCPCR’s scathing observations

NCPCR Chief Priyank Kanoongo personally engaged with the victimized girls, their families, and the investigating police officials to verify the incident. He brought to light significant shortcomings in the police inquiry. The head of NCPCR asserted that the Ahmednagar police appeared to be diverting attention away from the love jihad case by focussing attention on the counter case against Hindus who had extended assistance to the victims.

“Upon initial examination, it has become evident that there exist several gaps in the ongoing police investigation. Astonishingly, the assigned officers, including the Superintendent of Police (SP) from Ahmednagar, appear uninformed about the identity of the special juvenile police officer. Shockingly, the police are yet to scrutinize the mobile phones of the accused individuals, nor have they pursued leads from the Instagram application which was exploited by the perpetrators to trap the girls. Furthermore, the police have failed to gather information about Heena Sheikh, the individual responsible for enticing the girls and seemingly operating an illicit racket”, said the NCPCR Chief.

Furthermore, the NCPCR chief emphasized the need for enacting an anti-conversion law in Maharashtra in view of love jihad rackets run like organized crime and that amount to human trafficking. Priyank said that the state should have stronger laws against forced conversions because incidents like this happen when there aren’t strict rules. He pointed out that the police seem more interested in the countercase. He also mentioned that the girls’ complaints were ignored at first, and the police took a long time, around 7-8 hours, to file an official report. He questioned why the police waited so long and why the girls’ concerns were not listened to earlier.

The police arrested about 13 Hindu activists out of 25 who were accused of causing chaos near a mosque and its surroundings. According to a complaint by someone named Salim Pathan, the Hindus also threw stones at his workplace and the mosque. However, it turned out that these 13 arrested people were not actually in the area when the disturbance near the mosque occurred.

They were taken into custody because they had helped the young girls who were victims and were part of local Hindu groups. “The Hindu brothers had come to help us. They did nothing. But the Police charged them and arrested them. Why have they been arrested when not at all at fault? This is totally wrong”, one of the victim girls is quoted as saying by OpIndia.

Rahuri Police Inspector Dhananjay Jadhav confirmed that the 13 people have been released on bail, but the investigation is still going on, and the truth will come out soon. When asked specifically if the 13 Hindu individuals were actually present in Umbre during the disturbance near the mosque, the Police Inspector said, “We can’t say anything about that right now. Whether they were part of the group that caused trouble near the mosque will be decided by the Court. This is all part of the ongoing investigation, which we can’t share details about at the moment”.