Kolkata: Days after a Facebook page compiled a list of interfaith couples and asked people to attack them, Kolkata Police have initiated a probe into the ‘Love Jihad’ posts put up by ‘Hindutva Varta’ against these couples who are mostly from West Bengal.
The page, ‘Hindutva Varta’ (discussion on Hindutva) published names and Facebook profiles of 102 couples, asking “Hindu lions” to “hunt down” Muslim men on the list. However, the page made no mention of how it got the names of the interfaith couples. The list includes many well educated professionals starting from IT experts, teachers to Assistant Professor of a College in Midnapore.
Speaking to News18, Rehaan (name changed) said, “I received death threats on social media from some groups. I was scared and met a senior officer of the cyber cell at Lal Bazaar police headquarters and lodged a complaint on February 7. They assured me that adequate action will be taken.”
“It seems that the social media post mentioning us was done by some well organized group. They even warned my girlfriend not to meet me orelse she will face dire consequences. I suspect this involves multiple people and it is extremely scary. Both of us are traumatized and we hope that some action is taken.”
Joint Commissioner of Police, Praveen Kumar Tripathi told News18, “Yes, we have received a complaint and are investigating the matter. We are verifying the Facebook accounts from which these objectionable posts were put up. We promise to take adequate action based on the authenticity of such posts.”
The ‘list’ was viral across social media platforms in January and the page has since been taken down by Facebook.
The matter came to light after one of the couples named in the list lodged a complaint with the Kolkata Police cyber cell saying they have received death threats on social media.
Soon after the ‘Hindutva Varta’ list came out, several unknown individuals started dropping messages to warn Rehaan’s girlfriend on social media, prompting her to block some them. She later had to go off social media. “Someone meticulously searched and made a list of so many couples. There has to be a team behind this,” the complainant said.
His complaint further states, “Sir this is to inform you that, by virtue of a Facebook post and /or Internet publication made in a social networking site, i.e., Facebook, we being Mr Rehaan (name changed) and Ms Sumana (name changed) from South and Central Kolkata respectively have been targeted by a group of people. In the said post, the authors have promoted and /or attempted to promote disharmony, feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will on the basis of religion in writing… In the same post we were further subjected to death threats.”
In another case, Mrinalini, a marketing executive in a private company in Kolkata, said, “I was shocked to see my name being associated with my former boyfriend. We were in a relationship but it’s over now. We are not in touch for over a year. Such social media posts really hurt and I am scared and traumatized.”
Apart from ‘Hindutva Varta’, a similar post uploaded by Biplab Chattopadhyay (who claims to be a VHP member) on a group called ‘Milan Mela’ also warned Hindu girls “becoming victims of love jihad”. “Hindu girls are becoming victim of Love Jihad and converting to Islam. It’s time to wake up. Wake up all Hindus otherwise you will lose your homeland India.”
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