Reality Behind Purola’s ‘Love Jihad’ Plot And Right-Wing Groups Campaign (image:screen grab from x.com/zoo_bear/)
Purola’s ‘Love Jihad’ Plot is an instance of how a vicious online and offline campaign by Hindu right-wing groups drove Muslims out of this Uttarakhand town, while truth is far from the malicious propaganda.
Communal tensions arose in Purola, a small town in Uttarakhand‘s Uttarkashi district in June last year, after the allegation that that two men, one of them Muslim, had tried to abduct a teenage girl in May. The police identified two persons as Jitendra Saini (23) and Ubaid Khan (24) and arrested and booked them under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366A (procuration of minor girl) of the IPC and sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Soon after, right-wing groups started calling the abduction incident a ‘love-jihad’ case resulting amplification of communal conflict in Purola and neighbouring areas. In the following days, they held anti-Muslim marches, ransacked shops and demanded Muslim shop owners to leave their town. At least 41 Muslim families left the town, the Newslaundry reports.
Also Read| What Digvijaya Singh Wants Youth Congress Workers To Learn From RSS
The hostility against Muslims also came from BJP leaders in Uttarakhand.
Here’s how Far right Propaganda Outlets ran a campaign against Muslims of Uttarakhand. Uvaid Khan and Jitendra Saini have been acquitted by court and the minor girl and her uncle blamed the local police for torturing the girl and the RSS member Aashish Chunar of giving false… pic.twitter.com/ZOdkac0eXK
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) July 17, 2024
A year later, the case against two men crumbled and on last month, as a court in Uttarkashi acquitted both men after it found that the allegations against them were false, the Scroll.in reports.
During the trial, the minor girl informed the court that police had tutored her to accuse Khan and Saini of trying to abduct her. Besides, the court also identified contradiction in the statement of the only eyewitness in the case – Aashish Chunar, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Here are a few videos of protests by Right Wing organisation when the rumour of ‘Love Jihad, Kidnap and Sexual assault’ of a Minor girl was viral in Uttarakhand. The Uttarakhand court has acquitted the accused, Uvaid Khan and Jitendra Sani were acquitted.pic.twitter.com/gwa3758mdJ
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) July 17, 2024
Also Read | Rise In Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease (HFMD) In Delhi: Doctors Advise Residents To Be Vigilant
‘Love jihad’ is a conspiracy theory of far-right Hindutva groups which allege that Muslim men lure Hindu women into romantic relationships in order to convert them to Islam. It has been repeatedly used by several right-wing organisations to discredit inter-faith relationships and to fuel hatred between Hindus and Muslims.
