Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani stated on Friday that individuals who “trap” Hindu girls and elope with them are being dealt with harshly by his administration.
Mr Rupani told a gathering of the Maldhari community, whose traditional profession is cattle-rearing, in Ahmedabad’s Vasihnodevi Circle neighbourhood, CM added that the state’s BJP government had also taken severe measures against those involved in cow slaughter.
“My government brought in several laws with strict provisions. Be it the law to save cows from slaughter, the law to stop land grabbing, or the law to punish those involved in chain-snatching,” he said.
“We also brought a law to stop ‘love jihad’. We are dealing strictly with those who trap Hindu girls and elope with them,” he said.
The Chief Minister was speaking after performing ground-breaking ceremony for a planned building of the Raika Education Charitable Trust.
The Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, which was passed by the Assembly in April and was notified on June 15, provides for strict punishment for forcible or ‘fraudulent’ religious conversions through marriage.
Some contentious sections of the law were stayed by the Gujarat High Court last month.
