A day after a 23-year-old woman from Kothamangalam allegedly committed suicide, the Ernakulam Rural police on Monday arrested her boyfriend on charges of abetment to suicide, and sexual abuse on the promise of marriage and forced religious conversion.
The Kothamangalam police detained Rameez Mohammad for allegedly abetting the suicide of his partner, Sona Eldhose. Rameez and his family have been accused of allegedly harassing the deceased to get religiously converted before getting married.
Eldhose, a resident of Puthupady in Kothamangalam and a TTC student at an institute in Muvattupuzha, was found dead at her residence around 2 pm on Saturday. Initially, the Kothamangalam police registered a case of unnatural death. However, the police stumbled upon a suicide note, reportedly written by the deceased, during the preparation of mahazar on Sunday.
The suicide note recovered by the police reportedly revealed that the deceased was allegedly harassed to undergo religious conversion by Rameez and his family in order to get legally married. Sona was also allegedly physically assaulted, according to the suicide note.
The note and other evidence, including WhatsApp messages, reportedly show that Ramees assaulted her and, when she mentioned ending her life, he encouraged her to do so.
According to Sona’s family, she was initially willing to get married after getting religiously converted. However, she later decided against it after the accused was caught cheating with another woman.
“Rameez along with his family came to our house to fix the marriage. We agreed to their condition to convert the religion. But later Sona refused it. Then he agreed to marry her without conversion and she left the home last month. But after reaching his place, he again forced her and physically harassed her by locking her up in a room,” Sona’s brother Basil said.
Meanwhile, the BJP called it a case of “love jihad”.
BJP Kerala vice president Shone George alleged that similar incidents are occurring across Kerala and urged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to order an impartial investigation into the incident.
BJP national council member P K Krishnadas said religious terrorists are trying to convert girls by pretending to be in love. He said that thousands of such incidents are happening in the southern state.