The Gujarat police have arrested three men under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, for forcing a Hindu woman to convert to Islam. This is the third case registered under the ‘love jihad’ law by the Gujarat police ever since the Gujarat government passed the law, reports Times of India.

According to the reports, a 23-year-old woman had registered a complaint at the Fatehgunj police station in Vadodara on Wednesday, accusing her husband Mohib Pathan of forcefully converting her religion. The complainant said to the police that she had first met the accused in 2018 when she used to attend his tuition classes. They both exchanged phone numbers and started talking with each other, the victim said.

Further, the lady said that Pathan asked her to marry him and had assured her that she would be allowed to follow her own religion. The couple had registered marriage in August 2020, following which she lived with Pathan at his house in Chhani.

In her complaint, the woman accused Pathan of indulging in unnatural sex and thrashed her if she refused to comply. After a month of the marriage, Pathan began to force her to change her name, the police said. Later, Pathan called a Qazi and performed marriage rituals as per Islam.

Pathan forced her to convert to Islam, threw away idols of Hindu deities

The victim woman also alleged that Pathan did not allow her to pray as per her religion and threw away the idols of deities she had brought. The lady also named Pathan’s father Imtiyaz Pathan and elder brother Mohsin Pathan in the complaint.

In her complaint, the woman said the elder brother Mohsin had tried to molest her when she was alone at home. Her husband did not protest even when she informed him about the incident, she added.

The complainant also said that Pathan had thrashed her after she had named their baby Shiva. Pathan got violent again on Wednesday, and the woman left her house and approached the police.

Following the complaint, the police have arrested all the three accused in the case. The Vadodara police said that they are investigating to know whether there is anyone else involved in the incident. ACP Paresh Bhesania said that the accused have also been booked under IPC sections 354 for outraging a woman’s modesty, 498-A for domestic violence and 377 for unnatural sex.

The Gujarat government had recently passed the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Assembly prohibiting “forcible conversion by marriage”. The act was passed in the recently concluded budget session of the Gujarat assembly and was approved by Governor Acharya Devvrat.

The Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act 2021 provides for stringent penal action against any individual or institution for forced religious conversion through marriage. The act came into force on June 15.