Indian woman says she suffered miscarriage after being detained under new interfaith marriage law

Authorities have strongly denied reports of a ‘forced abortion’

File image: People from different human rights organisations hold placards during a protest against BJP-lead government and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath over the so-called 'Love Jihad' law, in Bangalore (EPA)

A 22-year-old Indian woman whose new husband and brother-in-law were arrested under a controversial new law targeting interfaith marriages has alleged that she suffered a miscarriage after being given an injection during her detention.

Muskan Jahan, who was known as Pinki before converting from Hinduism to Islam and marrying her Muslim partner Rashid six months ago, walked out of a government-run women’s shelter on Monday where she said she was held against her will for more than a week by the authorities.

Ms Jahan’s ordeal took place in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which recently passed a law cracking down on unlawful religious conversions, including those for the purpose of marriage. 

And it comes amid a wider movement among right-wing Hindu groups against “Love Jihad”, an Islamophobic conspiracy theory that maintains Muslim men are conspiring to convert Hindu women through seduction or forced marriage. Despite several police investigations, there’s no evidence such a conspiracy exists.

Ms Jahan and her husband had travelled to register their marriage on 6 December, but were accosted by a group of men when it emerged that she had formerly been a Hindu. Several saffron-clad men reportedly took the couple to Moradabad’s Kaanth police station, where Rashid and his brother were arrested on charges of coercing a woman into converting from Hinduism to Islam by marrying her, and booked under Section 3 of the new anti-conversion law.

Ms Jahan said she asked to return to  her home with her in-laws, but was instead forcibly taken to a government-run women’s protection home in Moradabad.

Speaking to the media for the first time after she left the home, she alleged that she had been “tortured”, fell ill, and was given medicines and an injection by a doctor after which she bled profusely and suffered a miscarriage.

“Initially when I felt unwell, they did not take me to the doctor,” Ms Jahan says in a video shared online by a local journalist. “When it became worse they took me to the hospital. After the first injection and medicines and I started bleeding. The bleeding increased later and I fell ill and went through a miscarriage.”

In the video, Ms Jahan appealed for the immediate release of her husband and brother-in-law, saying she had married of her own free will.

The local district protection officer Rajesh Gupta strongly denied Ms Jahan’s allegations, saying that as far as he was aware she had not lost her baby.

He told The Independent: “There are no treatments provided inside the protection home. If someone complains of a health issue, we take them to a government hospital. I completely deny the claim that she was administered an injection inside the home. We do not have a doctor posted inside.

“I spoke to the doctors yesterday and I was informed no abortion took place and her pregnancy continues,” said Mr Gupta.

The case is an addition to the long list of controversial arrests and government interventions in interfaith marriages since the new ordinance criminalising conversion for the purpose of marriage was passed. Those interventions include police halting a wedding where preparations for the ceremony were already well underway.

Rights activists and legal experts have described the law as “racially hostile legislation targeting Muslims” and say they fear it will be used to entrap and intimidate legitimate interfaith couples.