On 23 March 2015, Dainik Bhaskar reported a case of abduction and murder due to inter-religious marriage in Hajipur, Bihar. The deceased (Sanjeev) married a Muslim girl four months ago. It is alleged that angry relatives of the bride, along with some villagers, abducted the bride and bridegroom.

The incident was reported from Senduari village of Hajipur. According to the police, the deceased Sanjeev Patel alias Putul married the daughter of Mohammed Ajajul four months ago. After the love marriage, Mohammed Ajajul registered a case of kidnapping against Sanjeev, but the bride, Chandni, confirmed in the local court that she wanted to stay with her Husband.

Last Saturday, around 100 people attacked the house of Sanjeev. After brutally thrashing Sanjeev and his brother, they abducted Sanjeev and his wife. On Sunday afternoon, people found the body of Sanjeev close to the village of the bride.

People have found the body of Sanjeev, but the bride is still missing. The incident has created tensions in both the villages, and the boy’s side is preparing to take revenge.

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While the police and administration are trying their best that this incident doesn’t result into any major communal conflagration, many similar incidences have been reported in the past.

In 2012, Deeba Algani, 23, was attacked because she was travelling in a car with a person from Hindu community. She was admitted to a hospital after getting beaten up by 20 people.

“The mob waylaid our car, pushed us out and assaulted us. They asked me why I was travelling with a Hindu. I heard the miscreants talking over phone in the Beary language and referring to KFD (Karnataka Forum for Dignity). I can identify those who assaulted us,” she said. KFD is an organization similar to PFI in Kerala, which had cut off hands of a professor for allegedly framing questions that were anti-Islamic.

Last year, we had heard about the couple in Kerala who got death threats after the Hindu boy married a Muslim girl. In 2012 only, Dipankar Roy, 22 years old (Hindu) was brutally murdered in West Bengal as he had married Salima (Muslim).

These restrictive clauses for love and marriages will keep haunting our social structure till we don’t get rid of regressive and orthodox thinking. Such cases also highlight hatred and intolerance among various communities.

Media has been very selective in picking and debating moral policing cases from Khaps or random Hindu organizations, but they don’t highlight cases in which inter-religious killings are involved, especially where the victims are from the Hindu community. If these cases are not highlighted by the media and the activists, the fight against religious bigotry and moral policing will smack of hypocrisy and selective propaganda.