Pune: Muslim student assaulted and accused of ‘love jihad’ on university campus

A 19-year-old Muslim student was on Sunday beaten up on the Savitribai Phule Pune University campus by a group of men who accused him of “love jihad” and threatened to kill him, The Indian Express reported.

“Love jihad” is a Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men lure Hindu women into romantic relationships in order to convert them to Islam.

The police filed a case under bailable provisions of the Indian Penal Code and did not make any arrests.

The first-year student said he was on Sunday walking in the campus with his friends — one man and two women — when they were stopped by six men on three motorcycles who asked them for their Aadhaar cards, The Times of India reported.

“After going through our cards, they started accusing me of spreading love jihad and beat me up and slapped my friend,” the student said. “They did not harm the girls but cautioned them against speaking with me.”

The six men then called more people, who also allegedly abused and threatened the Muslim student. The men then allegedly called up the student’s father, who lives in Maharashtra’s Solapur district, from his mobile phone and abused him.

“They told him that if they did not cancel my admission then they would send back my dead body to our village,” The Indian...

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