On October 7, 2020, an 18 year old second-year student of Delhi University, Rahul Rajput was allegedly beaten to death by members of a female friend’s family. He  was seen with his female friend on CCTV near Adarsh Nagar, West Delhi last Wednesday, after which it is believed that he received a call for tuitions. Moments later he was allegedly thrashed by a group of five people and rushed to a local hospital by his uncle. He succumbed to his injuries later at Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital.

On the basis of Rahul’s uncle’s statement to the police, a case under Section 302 (murder) and Section 34 (an act done by several people in furtherance of a common intention) of the Indian Penal Code was registered. “On Wednesday at 7 pm, I got a call from my friend who informed us that four-five boys were beating up my nephew. When I reached the spot, I found that my nephew was being beaten brutally by the girl’s brothers and their accomplices… they slapped, punched and kicked him,” the uncle wrote in his complaint.  

“On Wednesday we received a call at 11:59 pm from BJRM hospital about a patient admitted in an unconscious condition. Rahul did not have any visible injuries. After the post-mortem, the doctor said the rupturing of spleen led to his death,” Vijayanta Arya, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (North West) told The Hindu. The police also say that the girl’s family members were apprehensive about the duo’s friendship.

Reacting to the 18-year-old’s death, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today said, “The family had come from a village to settle here. The boy used to teach and help others. We will ensure that those responsible get punished as soon as possible.”

This tragedy is alas not the first such case in Delhi. In February 2018, Ankit Saxena a 23-year-old professional photographer was stabbed to death in Khayala, West Delhi, allegedly by the family members including the brother of the woman with whom he was in a relationship. Often religious hardliners find inter-faith relationships unacceptable. A common allegation is that  Muslim men are luring Hindu women to marry them to produce Muslim off springs. These cases dubbed ‘Love Jihad’ by Hindutva supremacist groups marginalise Muslims and also fail to respect the agency of women.  

The Hadiya case is a reminder for all women to fight for autonomy. When Akhila, a young girl from Kerala, married a Muslim man Shafin Jahan, changed her name and converted to Islam, her father approached the court. Shockingly, the Kerala Court upheld her father’s petition, annulled Hadiya’s marriage to Shafin and “handed over” the 24-year-old woman’s custody to her father! The high court had also asked to investigate whether there were organised or systematic ‘love jihad’ campaigns in the state. When the husband moved the Supreme Court, a Bench comprising Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud permitted the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to access the Kerala police report probing an alleged larger conspiracy by terror groups to convert Hindu women to Islam and radicalise them. The SC then heard Hadiya in person and when she asserted that she had married Shafin Jahan of her own free will, the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment delivered on March 8, 2018 (International Women’s Day), respected Hadiya’s right as an adult woman to choose her partner and set aside the High Court order annulling her marriage.

The constitutional value of ‘Secularism’ is not only embodied in our Preamble but also several other provisions under it. The protection of equal status before the law under Article 14, the guarantee of non-discrimination on grounds of race, caste, sex, religion under Article 15, the abolition of untouchability under Article 17, the freedom to choose any religion and educational institution under Article 25, 29 and 30 to linguistic and religious minorities make up for a framework which rejects the idea of religious preference.

The Indian judiciary must undeniably always strive for propagating the idea of this unity and allowing women’s autonomy and privacy to breathe. Secularism is just not a philosophy limited to a hard-bound copy, it needs to find space in the most remote areas of India to prosper and grow.

Related:

Fearing ‘trouble’ for their families if they lived together, a young Hindu-Muslim couple chose to die together
BJP spokesperson calls consensual marriage ‘love jihad’
A Truly Happy Women’s Day for Hadiya as SC restores marriage
Love-jihad’ Booklets Peddle Bias & Bigotry

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