Additional and Sessions District Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar is the son-in-law of a BJP leader. In March, he faced criticism for praising Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in an order on the 2010 Bareilly riots case
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Even as the woman complainant changed her statement on allegations of ‘Love Jihad’, the judge of a fast-track court in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly awarded life imprisonment to a Muslim while making controversial observations about the Hindutva bogey of ‘Love Jihad’’.
In his judgement, Additional and Sessions District Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, who had directed a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi mosque and sealing of its wuzukhana (place for ablution) in 2022, linked the ‘Love Jihad’ bogey to the “demographic change,” “international tension” and “foreign funding”.
“The primary aim of ‘Love Jihad’ is to alter demographics and stir international tensions, driven by radical factions within a religious group. Essentially, it refers to the deceptive conversion of non-Muslim women to Islam through fraudulent marriages,” he said.
The judge went on to link ‘Love Jihad’ to foreign funding.
“These illegal conversions are carried out by certain extremist individuals who either engage in or support such activities. However, it’s important to note that these actions are not reflective of the entire religious community. The process of ‘Love Jihad’ involves significant financial resources, and in this case, it is likely that foreign funding is involved,” he said.
Diwakar is the son-in-law of a BJP leader. In March, he faced criticism for praising Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in an order on the 2010 Bareilly riots case.
Stating that “the head of power should be a religious person because his life is not of enjoyment but sacrifice,” the judge said that Adityanath exemplified the concept of a “philosopher king propounded by Plato”.
“For example, the current peethadeshwar of the great Siddhapeeth Gorakhnath Temple, Mahant Baba Shri Yogi Adityanathji, who is also the current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has proven the above concept to be true,” said the judge in his order.
Later, the Allahabad High Court expunged the observations describing them as “unwarranted remarks containing political overtones and personal views” and observed that it was “not expected of a judicial officer to express or depict his personal or pre-conceived notions or inclinations in the matter”.
His latest judgment is related to a woman who complained with the police, alleging that the accused, Mohd Aalim Ahmad, then 23, had initially introduced himself as Anand Kumar when they met at a coaching class in Bareilly in 2022. She claimed that they got married in a temple on March 13, 2022, but the woman “later discovered” his real identity and claimed she had been misled into the marriage.
Aalim was booked under several sections, including rape under Section 376-2n, criminal intimidation under Section 506, and voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323 of the IPC. His father, Mohd Sabir, was also charged with criminal intimidation under Section 504 and sentenced to two years in jail.
According to the Times of India, on 31 July, the woman gave a statement against Aalim but stopped appearing in the court. When a warrant was issued against her, she changed her statement in favour of Aalim. She said she had filed an FIR against Aalim as her parents were pressured by the Hindutva groups. But the judge refused to accept her changed statement saying that she was influenced by the accused.
However, the judge went on to link ‘Love Jihad’ with foreign funding by saying that the woman was “living separately from her parents in a rented house and using an expensive Android phone, despite being unemployed,” raising the question of foreign funding.
The judge said: “Love Jihad requires a significant amount of money. Therefore, it cannot be denied that Love Jihad is funded by foreign funding in this case.”
The order stated: “The detailed analysis has made it clear that the case in question involves illegal religious conversion through love jihad. First, it is important to understand what love jihad is. In love jihad, Muslim men, through marriage, convert Hindu women to Islam in a planned manner. They marry Hindu women by showing love and then convert them…”.
Commenting on the judgment, Global journalist Rana Ayuub pointed out that the judiciary is legitimatising the conspiracy theory propounded by the right wing.
“So the Indian judiciary has legitimised a right-wing conspiracy theory called ‘Love Jihad’ and sentenced a Muslim man to life imprisonment. The judge has gone one step further and suggested that Love Jihad is being done to achieve a bigger illegal objective against India,” she wrote.
Columnist Sarayu Pani said: “Love jihad” went from a conspiracy theory to having “vigilantes” act against it, to the enactment of anti-conversion laws, to a Muslim man being jailed for life by a court. For an interfaith marriage in India. This is how lawfare against minorities works”.
She added: “Same trajectory with cow slaughter laws – each a case study in the path from fringe action to fill on apartheid. In about 15 years”.
