Alleged members of a little-known Hindutva group torched two houses belonging to a young Muslim man in Agra on Friday after local Sangh parivar leaders accused him of “love jihad”.
Gym trainer Sajid Qureshi had on Monday disappeared with a 22-year-old woman, a resident of Runakta area of Agra district, prompting her parents to lodge an FIR on the charge of kidnapping with intent to murder, police said.
“However, the girl released a video saying she was an adult and had gone with the gym trainer of her own free will,” Agra senior superintendent of police Sudhir Kumar Singh said.
A police team found the woman alone at a Delhi guesthouse on Wednesday and brought her back. She refused to return to her parents and has been put up at a government home for women. Her statement will be recorded before a magistrate, officers said.
The police are looking for Sajid to arrest him.
On Friday morning, “members of the Dharm Jagran Samanvay Sangh broke the locks of two houses belonging to Sajid in the Sikandara police station area (in Agra district), ransacked them and torched them”, SSP Singh said.
Both houses were vacant. Sajid’s family lives elsewhere in Agra.
“We have arrested eight people and are trying to identify and nab the other rioters. They too will be booked under the Gangster Act and National Security Act,” Singh said.
The Gangster Act is invoked in cases of organised crime. The NSA allows detention without a formal charge for up to a year.
On Wednesday, the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha and the Bajrang Dal had organised a protest before Runakta police station demanding Sajid’s arrest.
Markets were closed in Runakta on Thursday on a call from the Samanvay Sangh and the Mahasabha.
Raunak Thakur, a local Bajrang Dal leader, said: “Muslim youths trap Hindu girls to spoil their lives. Sajid had also taken Rs 5 lakh from the girl. This is love jihad; it has to stop immediately.”
The woman’s father told reporters in Agra his daughter was a BA student at a college in Mathura. “Sajid has kidnapped her and we want him arrested immediately.”
Satyanarayan, the circle officer for the area, said: “Sajid will be arrested. Those who took the law into their own hands will not be spared, either.”
