AGRA: Eight more relatives of the 28-year-old Muslim man, on the run after being accused of “kidnapping and unlawfully converting” a Hindu woman to Islam, were on Tuesday booked and arrested. With the recent arrests, 14 members of Mohammad Javed’s family, mostly distant relatives, are behind the bars in Etah.
Sources in local police said that the arrests were meant to “create pressure” on the absconding couple to turn themselves in. Police believed that the woman was somewhere in Delhi, while Javed was still in UP, constantly changing his location. “Javed and his four close relatives are still absconding,” a police officer said, adding that they will also be arrested soon.
A reward of 25,000 on each of the five men has also been announced. The case under the UP’s new anti-conversion law was filed on Thursday at Etah’s Jalesar police station on the basis of a complaint filed by the woman’s father, a local businessman.
According to police, the woman has been missing since November 17. But her family filed a case last Thursday when they received a letter by Javed’s lawyer from Delhi purportedly informing about the woman’s conversion and the subsequent marriage in a court.
The case was registered under IPC section 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc) and under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020.
Deputy superintendent of police Ram Niwas Singh said, “14 people have been arrested so far. Three police teams are trying to find the woman, and arrest the absconding accused.”