Bombay HC rejects love jihad claim says interfaith relations can't have religious angle by default

A relationship cannot be dubbed as a form of love jihad just because the boy and the girl belong to different religions, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has said while granting pre-arrest bail to a Muslim woman and her family.

A division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Abhay Waghwase in the order passed on February 26 granted anticipatory bail to the accused who were denied relief by a local court in Aurangabad.

The woman's former lover had alleged she and her family forced him to convert to Islam and undergo circumcision. The man's lawyer, while opposing the pre-arrest bail applications of the woman and her family members, also argued that it was a case of love jihad.

Here, though, the accuser was a man. The high court rejected the love jihad argument, pointing out that the man, in the First Information Report (FIR), had admitted he was in a relationship with the woman and did not end the relationship despite having several opportunities.

Merely because the boy and girl are from different religions, it cannot have a religious angle. It can be a case of pure love for each other, the court said. It appears that now the colour has been tried to be given of love jihad, but when love is accepted then there is less possibility of the person being trapped just for converting him into the other's religion, it added.

As per the prosecution case, the man and the woman were in a relationship since March 2018. The man belonged to a Scheduled Caste community but did not disclose this to the woman.