Guwahati: One person has been arrested for allegedly being involved in ‘love jihad’ by Barpeta Police in Assam on Tuesday.
The accused identified as Ritul Hussain.
As per reports, Hussain was arrested by Barpeta Police from his own residence in Mandia village of the district.
Based on the complaint of a Barpeta victim woman, Ritul has been taken into custody.
The woman had submitted a FIR at the Dispur Police Station in Guwahati.
Dispur Police then handed over the case to Barpeta Police for further investigation.
It has since been revealed that the victim woman also mentioned the MLA from the Barpeta Chenga Assembly Constituency in her complaint.
In her complaint, she had also taken the name of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jitu Talukdar.
Further details are awaited in this regard.
On the orders of the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Assam Police had earlier initiated a large statewide crackdown on child weddings, during which several persons had been arrested.
Speaking about the issue, CM Sarma stated on March 20 that his administration is dedicated to putting an end to the problem of child marriage by the year 2026.
While replying to a question from Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha at the state assembly, he said, “Our government has taken a series of measures to end the menace. By 2026, child marriage must be ended in Assam. Our government will take strong action to end Child Marriage.”
“Our government has allocated Rs 200 crore for it in this budget so that we can appoint a special advocate against each Child Marriage case. We want to see everybody convicted,” he said.
“We will launch an operation against Child Marriage in the state and arrest people every 2-3 months. We will open a helpline number. We have so far charge sheeted 900 cases. We have acted as per law,” CM Sarma added.
Meanwhile, he declared that the state government will support victim rehabilitation by offering scholarships, free schooling and free rice programmes.