A Muslim woman, her parents, and a cleric have been arrested for converting an underage boy forcefully and marrying him off to the woman. The woman is divorced and has kids. The 16 year old Hindu boy was converted to Islam by the woman’s family after grooming him for a year.
The issue came to light after the video of the boy reading some religious text in the presence of a cleric went viral on social media. The Hindu boy Nikhil Kumar Singh was born in 2005 and reportedly is in 8th grade. The boy was reportedly lured by the divorced woman and converted to Islam forcibly so that she could marry him.
The boy’s mother told The Indian Express, “I came to know that my 16-year-old son has adopted Islam and married a woman, who has a four-year-old daughter. My son’s friend told me that he (son) was in touch with the woman for the last one year. The woman’s relative lives near the shop where my son works… They brainwashed my son.”
She immediately went to the police station to file a complaint. But the cops didn’t register her complaint and only after she informed Bajrang Dal who staged a protest outside the police station, did they register her complaint and booked the divorced woman Simran, her parents Jameela Bano, Mohammad Hanif, and cleric Tauheed Hussain, and other accomplices. Sewa Nyaya Uthan Foundation had taken the matter to the attention of the National Committee for Protection of Child Rights(NCPCR).
NCPCR has written to the Kanpur Police Commissioner to file an FIR and initiate an inquiry into the issue. It has also instructed that the boy should be produced before the District Child Welfare Committee and send a report to the commission within 7 days. Kannur police have booked the Muslim woman, her parents, and the maulvi under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, provisions of the anti-conversion law and IPC sections 363 (kidnapping) and 342 (wrongful confinement).
Even though as per his Aadhar card Nikhil is a minor, police have sent him for medical examination to assert it as they suspect otherwise. So far only underage Hindus were targetted by Muslims for grooming. Now it seems that even young Hindu boys are not left alone. Old Muslim men in Pakistan kidnap, forcibly convert and marry Hindu girls with impunity. It appears that the same culture has pervaded Bharat as well with Muslims giving two hoots about the laws of the land.