Q: Is UP’s forced conversion law a ‘new’ tool for ‘harassment’ of couples?

Let me address it in this thread:

Before this new law, this is what parents of (adult) daughters who went missing did: give a complaint to police that girl is missing or has possibly been kidnapped +

If parents named a suspect, police would book the man under 366 (abducting women to compel marriage) and related charges. Police would track the couple and take them in custody. They would record her statement under 164 of CrPC with magistrate +

If woman gave statement in favour of accused, she’d be allowed to go with him. Police would proceed to close the case. If she gave statement against him, accusing him of kidnapping/raping, police would proceed with charges against the man. She would go to parents if she said so +

This takes no more than a day or two

Since new law came into effect, police hv been booking the man under new Act if woman’s parents say in complaint he is trying to forcibly convert her

The rest of the police procedure remains the same as in the cases filed for kidnapping +

So what went wrong in Moradabad case?

That police did not record her statement for 9 days. Man continued to be in jail. Woman continued to be in shelter home.
If police had recorded her statement in time, they would have been released from custody shortly later +

Newspapers hv quoted police that they delayed it due to “busy schedule”. Perhaps the police wud have further delayed, had it not been for controversy over woman’s miscarriage in shelter home

After the woman gave statement in favour of Rashid on Dec 14, they were promptly freed +

There hv been many cases in past where the man has remained in jail for many days only because police failed to record her statement in time. Many of these cases involve inter-caste Hindu couples and even Hindu couples from same caste +

There have also been cases where the girl has remained in a shelter home despite giving a statement in favour of parents, only because the police failed to follow due procedure in time

I reported one such case recently https://swarajyamag.com/politics/minor-bengal-girl-rescued-from-trafficking-is-stuck-in-delhi-shelter-home-for-eight-months-who-is-responsible

In Moradabad case, the new law and parents of girl are being blamed for keeping the man in jail and miscarriage of woman for what is clearly a failure of local police in doing their job in time.

I hv explained it here: https://swarajyamag.com/politics/the-real-problem-with-the-moradabad-love-jihad-case-is-not-complaint-by-womans-parents-but-polices-handling-of-it

I am continuing this thread with a new one.

This one to address the ques: Is it harassment if parents file any kind of police case against the man AND does it take away the woman’s agency to choose her partner as being claimed in articles such as by @tavleen_singh?

Read on:

The above argument essentially suggests that if parents find their (adult) daughter missing, they should not make any effort to find her.

Situation 1: Daughter goes missing & leaves a note that she has eloped with a man

What if the note has been dropped by her kidnapper?

Situation 2: Daughter goes missing, and parents hear from neighbours that they saw her going with a man

What if the man has taken her away on gunpoint?

Situation 3: Daughter goes missing, and she texts that she is eloping with a man out of her free will

What if the text message has actually been sent by her kidnapper using her phone?

(In Ekta Jaswal case, Saqib kept sending texts from her phone for a year after killing her)

A note or a text message is not a legal statement of ‘free will’. A statement in front of the magistrate is.

It’s thus not only a moral duty of parents to go to police if daughter is missing, but it also becomes mandatory as a cushion against problems that may arise in future