The 'Love Jihad' controversy in Uttar Pradesh took a new twist with a 22-year-old local girl going back on her earlier statement that she was gangraped and forcibly converted to Islam.
Meerut: A 22-year-old woman, who earlier alleged gang rape and forced conversion raising tensions in western Uttar Pradesh in August, did a U-turn saying she went with the accused in the case out of her own free will.
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The victim's father had filed a missing complaint yesterday and police was searching for her when the girl approached the woman police station here and claimed that there is a threat to her life from her parents', said SP (Rural) Captain M S Begh.
Later, when she was produced before the City Magistrate Satya Prakash Rai's court, she did a U-turn from her statement saying that she was not abducted but went with the accused out of her own wish, he said. The victim refused to go back home saying her family is upset with her and hence there is a threat to her life from them.
After the statement was recorded, she was sent to a nari niketan here, added Begh. Meanwhile, the victim's father said that she has given such statement in pressure from the accused. On August 3, the woman's father had lodged a complaint in Kharkhauda police station against Village Pradhan Nawab Khan, cleric Sallaullah, his wife and daughter Nishant for abduction and rape.
The complainant had alleged that Nawab along with five others abducted his daughter on July 23 and took her to a Madrassa where they raped and illegally confined her. They also forcefully made her sign some papers related to religious conversion.
While a magisterial inquiry was ordered into the case, tension gripped the Kharkhauda and Atrada areas here as irate members of a particular communities attacked and pelted stone at the houses of members of another community.
Police and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel were also deployed in the area to bring the situation under control. As the incident sparked an outrage, the Centre sought a detailed report from Uttar Pradesh government at the earliest while her family demanded a CBI probe.
Ten persons were arrested in the case and further investigations were on when the victim retracted from the statement, Begh said.
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