Congress Councillor in ‘Love Jihad’ Case Surrenders in Court

Anwar Qadri, an absconding Congress councillor accused of financing a controversial ‘love jihad’ scheme, surrendered before the Indore district court in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, narrowly avoiding property seizure by authorities. The surrender came just a day before police were set to escalate actions against Qadri, who had been on the run for nearly two months with a Rs 40,000 reward offered for information leading to his arrest.

The case stems from allegations by two local men, Sahil Sheikh and Altaf Shah, arrested in June for separate rape and related charges. During interrogation, they claimed Qadri provided them Rs 3 lakh to lure women into relationships for religious conversion, a practice right-wing groups term ‘love jihad’—alleging Muslim men entice women from other faiths to convert to Islam. Based on these statements, police registered a case against Qadri for orchestrating a conspiracy involving financial inducements for conversions.

Banganga police station in-charge Siyara Singh told PTI that a team was dispatched to the court upon learning of Qadri’s surrender. “With the court’s approval, he was taken to the police station for further proceedings,” Singh said. The councillor faces serious allegations, compounded by 18 prior criminal cases registered against him across various police stations in Indore.

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Earlier, Indore Collector Ashish Singh had invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against Qadri, citing the need to maintain public peace and law and order. The accusations have sparked heated debate, with ‘love jihad’ remaining a polarizing term used by right-wing groups to describe alleged forced conversions through romantic relationships. Qadri’s surrender marks a significant development in a case that has drawn widespread attention in Madhya Pradesh.

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