UP Police | Love Jihad 'No human rights violated': UP Police after stopping Muslim couple's marriage
Lucknow/IBNS: Uttar Pradesh Police has said it acted within the law when it took away a couple (both muslims) in eastern Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar for questioning as it acted to verify information about a crime under the state's newly formed unlawful conversion act, said a media report.
On Tuesday evening, the police stopped the marriage of a 39-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman and took them away to a police station where they were questioned for the entire night, according to an NDTV report.
UP Police has said it went to the spot based on information that a Hindu woman was being forcibly married to a muslim man, the report said.
Both the man and the woman were brought to the police station and after questioning it was revealed that the woman was also a muslim from Azamgarh, they added.
Police gathered more information and found that a missing complaint had been filed, earlier, about the woman, said the report, adding that her parents were contacted and she was handed over to them.
The couple was allowed to leave the police station only on Wednesday, the report said.
However, the police have denied allegations of torturing the man inside the police station or stopping the marriage.
In a statement issued on Twitter, police said it merely questioned the couple and apprised information about the missing girl in the concerned district of Azamgarh and informed her family about her.
"There was no violation of human rights," the police underscored.
The UP Police has asserted that it did not misuse the law against unlawful conversion applicable only if a person is converting solely for the purpose of marriage.
It asserted that when contrary to the information received nothing wrong was happening and no criminal offence was involved everyone was allowed to go.
The woman was handed over to her parents as a missing complaint had been lodged about her.
An ordinance passed by the state provides that religious conversions that use falsehood, force or an incentive, or take place solely for marriage will be declared a crime.
Anyone planning to convert after marriage will have to give a two months prior notice to the state government and will have to prove that they were not converting under duress or just for the sake of marriage.
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