New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked his officials to formulate a strategy and bring an ordinance if required to prevent religious conversions in the name of love, an official said on Friday.
“It has been seen in the recent past that women have been made to convert in the name of love and marriage and later subjected to cruelty and even murder,” said the official who did not wish to be named.
The police recently set up a Special Investigation Team in Kanpur to look into the reports of “love jihad.” In 2019, the Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission had submitted a report to the Chief Minister, suggesting a new law to check forcible religious conversions.
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Last month, the Chief Minister had directed senior officials of the state home department to prepare a plan to stop incidents of “love jihad”, following several such cases reported from different parts of the state, according to senior officials.
The UP government is known for often passing draconian laws. A few days back the Yogi government had set up a special force with powers similar to CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), that can search and arrest without a warrant. This decision was questioned by many as critics pointed out that the powers for search and arrest could be misused.
-India Legal Bureau