A minor Hindu girl residing in Brahmpuri area, Meerut Uttar Pradesh, who was abducted a fortnight back had been forcibly converted and married thereafter, reports Patrika.

As per the report, the minor girl Lata (name changed), daughter of a businessman, after being abducted was taken to Deoband, where she was forcibly converted and then to Prayagraj, where she was later married off.

The Uttar Pradesh police recovered Lata from Prayagraj on Saturday. They have also arrested the accused along with two others involved in the crime. Fearing that the incident might take a communal angle the Uttar Pradesh police had swiftly taken up the case as soon as Lata’s family lodged a missing complaint. Before apprehending the accused the police had already arrested 15 people related to the case.

However, after the incident came to light communal tension prevailed in Brahmpuri area in Meerut.

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The incident surfaced when Lata went missing from her house on 4th May 2019. The police who were in the hunt for the youth and the missing girl recovered her from a hotel room in Prayagraj where she was kept forcefully. The police arrested the youth along with his brother and brother-in-law. Fearing arrest, the youth was preparing to file for an anticipatory bail in Uttar Pradesh High court, but before he could, the police apprehended him.

According to SSP Nitin Tiwari, Lata confirmed that she was first taken to Deoband where she was forced to convert and then to Prayagraj where she was married. After this, she was sometimes kept in Hyderabad and sometimes in Mumbai. In-between she was also confined to a hotel in Chandigarh, confirmed Lata.

Since the girl belonged to the Hindu community, many Hindu organisations and Lata’s relatives protested outside the Brahmpuri police station. Communal tensions prevailed in the area, confirmed SSP.

Though rampant conversions in the recent past have been one of the prime reasons, Uttar Pradesh has also witnessed several incidences of communal disorder for a host of various trivial reasons.

Recently in another incidence, communal tension had erupted in Meerut after a video showing Muslim men beating up shopkeepers went viral.