LUCKNOW: Four people were arrested on Tuesday following a named FIR registered against them in connection with the kidnapping of a 13-year-old minor girl, who was allegedly converted to Islam to marry a Maulvi (Muslim cleric).
The minor, who had been kidnapped three months ago, was rescued by the Varanasi police on Monday night. The arrests were made on Tuesday afternoon after the intervention of the Varanasi police commissioner.
The girl’s father, a resident of a locality under Adampur police station, alleged that he was threatened with dire consequences by the perpetrators of the crime. He further claimed that the Adampur police did not lodge his complaint when he approached them to get back his daughter, and that the FIR was filed only after the intervention of Varanasi police commissioner Mohit Agrawal.
According to DCP (crime) T. Savanan, the girl was rescued on Monday night, while the accused — including Sharif, his 14-year-old son, a 35-year-old woman, and another person named Lalu — were arrested late Tuesday afternoon.
On the basis of the victim’s father’s complaint, an FIR was registered against the four under Section 137(2) (kidnapping), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace), 191(2) (rioting) of the BNS, and Section 5(3) of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2021.
According to the complaint, the girl was forcibly taken from her house in Konia locality three months ago by the teen accused and his accomplices. The father alleged that when he went to get his daughter back, he was attacked by the accused — Sharif alias Raju, Lalu, and others — along with a dozen locals.
“They claimed that after conversion, the girl belonged to their community and that they had married her to a cleric. A mob of around 200 threatened to kill me and told me I had no right over my daughter anymore. They even attempted to lynch me, but I escaped,” the father stated in his complaint.
He also alleged that when he contacted Adampur police to lodge a case and secure his daughter’s rescue, no action was taken despite his repeated attempts. Finally, he approached the Varanasi police commissioner on Monday afternoon, after which Adampur police lodged the FIR and promptly acted to rescue the girl while arresting those named in the complaint.