Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi has said that 'Love Jihad has no place in the state, and those indulging in the act will face strict punishment.
He said this after the Gandhinagar Police carried out a high-stakes operation across Assam to trace and rescue a 20-year-old woman allegedly lured into a relationship and taken away by a man from that state.
The accused, identified as Soif Abdul Manaf Uddin, who worked as a housekeeping supervisor at a Gandhinagar hotel, had reportedly trapped the woman in a love affair and fled with her to Assam.
Despite challenges -- Uddin had switched his phone to flight mode and relied only on WiFi calls, making technical tracking nearly impossible -- the district's LCB and Sector-7 police teams deployed a mix of technical analysis and human intelligence to track him down. After combing through several districts in Assam, the team located the accused in Hojai district's Murazar area and brought the woman back safely to her family.
Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi congratulated the Gandhinagar Police team for their swift action, reiterating that Gujarat would not tolerate cases of "love jihad" or attempts to deceive women under false identities. "Gujarat is a peace-loving state, and those indulging in such crimes will face the strictest legal action," he said.
The operation was supervised by DIG Virendra Singh Yadav and SP Ravi Teja Vasamsetti, with ground teams led by Deputy SP Divyaprakash Gohil, Sub-Inspector U.M. Gadhvi, and Police Inspector J.J. Gadhvi, among others. Police officials said the successful operation was a message that law enforcement in Gujarat remains committed to protecting young women and ensuring such crimes do not take root in the state.
In Gujarat, "love jihad" is a controversial term used by political leaders and right-wing groups to describe cases where Muslim men allegedly lure Hindu women into relationships or marriage with the aim of religious conversion. The state government has taken a tough stance, amending the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act in 2021 to criminalise conversions through marriage, coercion, or deceit.
