Even before communal embers get extinguished in Saharanpur, tension gripped neighbouring Meerut after a young madrasa teacher alleged gang-rape and forced conversion into a community.
The 20-year-old, who was a regular teacher of Hindi and English in the Sarawa village madrasa in Kharkhauda, alleged that she was abducted on July 23 and taken to a madrasa in Hapur and later shifted to another one in Muzaffarnagar. She claimed that she was gang-raped and later forced to adopt the religion of a particular community and her named changed.
The woman managed to escape from captivity on August 2 and contacted her family who rescued her and later filed a complaint with the police.
Of the four persons named in the FIR, village chief of Sarawa and a madrasa official have been arrested and a hunt is on for the other two. The SHO of Kharkhauda has also been removed from his post.
As soon as the news spread, a mob came out on the roads in Kharkhauda demanding strict action against the culprits.
The victim later claimed that she had seen 40 more girls in the Muzaffarnagar madrasa. She said they have been kept in captivity in a secret underground room.
With tensions rising and BJP leaders demanding complete probe, the UP Police searched the said madrasa only to find – reportedly – around 15 girls who had been registered there as having come there on a vacation. The police also failed to find any trace of a secret cellar.
The girl was taken for medical examination yesterday. She has claimed that her stomach was sliced, fuelling fears that the whole issue may be linked to a organ transplant racket.
