Police arrested the men within hours, but the two were acquitted on July 18, 2024, by a local court in Uttarakhand, after the allegations against them fell flat. According to media reports, the acquittal came after the minor girl testified before the court that she was “tutored” by the “ state police” to say that the Muslim youth, Uvaid Khan, in cahoots with a Hindu youth, Jitendra Saini, was forcibly putting her in a three-wheeler to whisk her away to his home in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh to commit “Love Jihad.”During the 19 hearings, in Judge Gurubaksh Singh’s district and sessions court, the 13-year-old girl contradicted her initial statement to the police, “revealing that ‘the police had coached her on what to say,’” reported The Times of India. The girl’s uncle in his police complaint had stated that his acquaintance, Ashish Chunar, who runs a computer shop in Purola market, had informed him that Khan and Saini were ‘transporting’ the girl to Naugaon, approximately 18 km from Purola, in a tempo.The police had reportedly invoked Section 366A (inducing a minor to go from anywhere) of the IPC and sections of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the two men.But later Chunar withdrew his statement after failing to identify the accused. “The girl told the court that she went to Purola market and was looking for a tailor’s shop. She had asked for help from Ubaid and Saini and the two showed her the shop. The girl stated the two made no attempt to abduct her,” The Hindu reported Halim Beg, the lawyer who appeared for the suspects in court as saying. Almost a year later, months after the case and allegations of “Love Jihad” fell flat in the court, some Muslim families are returning to their homes, though without any closure to the violence they endured. Sonu Khan, who runs a garments shop in Purola, said he had to sell his house after the communal tension. Even after a year, the business has never picked up pace, he told The Hindu. “Me and my brother Sahil Khan had lived here since birth as my father moved to Uttarkashi in 1975. Only God knows what made everyone turn against us. I had to sell my house fearing that we may have to leave town. I stayed with a relative for some days but later, one of my Hindu friends supported me and offered to keep me in his house. Even now, Hindu customers rarely come to my shop,” Sonu Khan said. Sahil Khan had fled the town and moved to Vikas Nagar, 110 km away, and started a mobile repair shop to earn a living. “I don’t think I will ever be able to go back to that town. The rally taken out by my own Hindu friends against my community will haunt me forever,” Sahil Khan told The Hindu.Another resident Mohammed Farukh said several people who had left the town amid the turmoil returned earlier this year but they are all struggling to earn a living as business has been badly hit. “We were not even allowed to offer Eid namaz in Purola after that incident”, he told The Hindu. There are also families who are struggling to start a life elsewhere, still in shock and refusing to come back. Mohammad Jahid is one of them. Jahid used to run two garment shops in Purola. He fled the town and is starting a new life in Dehradun. Meanwhile, the two men who were falsely implicated in the case are still struggling to accept the turn of events. Ubaid Khan is still in a state of shock, one of his relatives told The Hindu.“His family had a furniture shop in Purola which they had to sell hurriedly. They couldn’t even get 20% of the value of the shop and its stock. His brother had to run from pillar to post to fight his case and now, the family is trying to set up another business for him in Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh,” the newspaper reported Khan’s relative as saying. Jitendra Saini has moved to Bijnor, while his family had to take a loan to fight the case, according to the report.
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