News Brief
Body of Uma alias Fatima being recovered by the police on 24 December.
In yet another case where a Hindu woman has been killed after elopement and conversion-nikah, rotting body of Uma Sharma alias Arfa Fatima was recovered from her own bedroom by police on 24 December in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district.
Her husband Wasi Ahmed killed her by giving her electric shock on 22 December, police said.
The main accused Wasi, along with his brother Rafi, were arrested on 25 December. They have been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence).
The note (attached below) said that the police have seized a four-metre electricity wire that was used for giving electric shock.
Local news reports said that Uma had eloped and married Wasi after her conversion to Islam, and was renamed as Arfa Fatima.
A report by Amar Ujala said that the two used to be neighbours. After Uma left her family, Wasi shifted to another locality. He lived with his mother Ashiya and brother Rafi. His father passed away several years ago.
The report quotes Ashiya as saying that Wasi confided in her that he had killed Fatima in a fit of rage after she threatened to go to the police against him. Ashiya then approached the police herself on 23 December.
She told another newspaper that Fatima and Wasi would constantly fight. However, the reports do not say what they fought about. They have children, both sons, named Haider and Humayun.
Swarajya has reported a large number of cases where Hindu women have been murdered or killed themselves for refusing to or after accepting conversion-nikah.
The pattern of such cases is called by Hindu activists as ‘love jihad’ - a term coined by Christian organisations more than a decade ago.
Besides Hindus and Christians, the term has also been used by Sikh, Jain, Buddhist and tribal groups.
Here is a list of such cases.