Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath on Friday directed senior Home Department officials to prepare a plan to stop incidents of love jihad and see whether a new law is required, his media adviser Mrityunjay Kumar stated.Kumar added, “There are increasing cases of love jihad being reported from different parts of the state.”

According to officials, the direction came after multiple incidents reported from Kanpur, Meerut, and a recent one in Lakhimpur Kheri, where the police claim there is evidence that the women were being forced to convert and marry. “Chief Minister instructed senior Home Department officials to prepare a plan to stop such incidents,” Mrityunjay Kumar added. Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awaneesh Kumar Awasthi, who attended the informal meeting, said, “This is a social issue. To stop it, they would have to be taken seriously – action needs to be taken against the accused, and we have to be harsh. These days, social media is available everywhere and it goes into the mind of others as well.” Awasthi further added, “The accused should not be allowed to get bail; then the woman’s family should be given monetary help, etc.” On asking if a new law will be brought in, Awasthi said that as of now the existing law needs to be implemented properly.

Love Jihad is a conspiracy theory, used by Hindutva groups to describe inter-religious marriages on the alleged effort by Muslim men in targeting women belonging to non-Muslim communities for conversion to Islam by feigning love. Recently in Kanpur, the police had formed a special investigating team (SIT) to probe allegations of conversion, either by force or by ‘brainwashing’ the women before marriage, following several cases of inter-religious marriages there.