The Madhya Pradesh Police has said that it was yet to find any links between the seven persons arrested for recently assaulting aMuslim man in a hotel in Bhopal, and any Hindutva organisations, The Indian Express reported on Monday.

On May 10, a group of persons accused 27-year-old Arif Khan of “love jihad” while he was with a Hindu woman and assaulted him.

Love jihad is a Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men trick Hindu women into romantic relationships with the aim of converting them to Islam. The Union home ministry has told Parliament that Indian law has no provision defining such a term.

Govindpura Station House Officer Awadhesh Singh Tomar told The Indian Express that of the seven persons held for the assault, one is a juvenile. The others were identified as Brijendra Prajapati, Prateek Chouksey, Lalaram Meena, Ramesh, Ajay and Aman.

“Representatives of right-wing organisations have informed that they are a disciplined organisation and these individuals are not their members,” the newspaper quoted Tomar as saying.

He added that Khan had also been arrested in connection with old allegations pending for some years.

“He was recently released from jail and we found was involved in two cases of mobile phone thefts,” Tomar was quoted as saying. “After this came to light, we arrested him.”

After Khan was assaulted, a first information report...

Read more