Sadhvi Saraswati was allegedly speaking at a religious convention in Kasargode
A police case has been filed against a religious leader, Sadhvi Saraswati, for allegedly outraging religious sentiments and creating enmity through a provocative speech in Kerala. According to reports, Sadhvi Saraswati had asked men to gift swords to their sisters, so they can behead any love jihadi and offer it to Mother India. Men who slaughter cows should be beheaded in the same manner, she reportedly said.
The Badiadka police have booked Sadhvi Saraswati for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings and promoting enmity, sources said. The offences carry a punishment of upto four years in jail. If arrested, she would not be granted bail.
Sources in the police said the comments were allegedly made during a religious convention in Kasargode on Sunday. "The complaint doesn't specify what was said but the complainant has alleged that she made provocative statements with an aim of creating violence," a police officer from Kasargode said.
The right wing concept of love jihad - which accuses Muslim men of drawing Hindu women into relationships, converting them and eventually recruiting them for terrorism - has been in the limelight in Kerala, especially after the huge media attention to the Hadiya case.
Hadiya - a Hindu-born woman who converted to Islam - was married to a Muslim man, which got annulled by the Kerala high court after her parents alleged that she had been brainwashed and forced to convert. The Supreme Court later freed her from the custody of her parents and said the legitimacy of her marriage cannot be questioned.
Following a large number of complaints of forced conversions, the top court had also asked the National Investigation agency to check if there was any coercion involved in inter-faith marriages. The agency said they made sufficient progress and found an "emerging trend" in the conversions.
In neighbouring Karnataka, a BJP youth wing leader was arrested in January after a young woman named him in her suicide note, blaming moral policing by him and four others. The police indicated that the young woman was systematically hounded for her alleged friendship with a Muslim man.