Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): “We are planning to ask the marriage registrars and other institutions which are involved in conducting marriages, to conduct police verification to check love jihad cases”, said home minister Narottam Mishra to the media here on Thursday.
The minister added that in these institutions the application for the marriage is submitted a month prior to the marriage. So, the Marriage Registrar Bureau and other institutions involved in the registration process like the notary can be asked to perform police verification of the applicants before conducting the marriage.
Recently, various cases have been reported in which the man hides his identity to marry Hindu girl.
After some time the girl comes to know that she was cheated and later the man and his family put pressure on the girl to adopt their religion. This causes problems for the girl and her family.
In Madhya Pradesh the Freedom of Religion Act 2021 was passed to curb religious conversions carried out solely for the purpose of marriage. Section 5 of the act prohibits unlawful conversion from one religion to another by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion and any other fraudulent means like allurement, or promise of marriage.
Offenders of the act can face an imprisonment of one to five years.
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