Dainik Jagran now finds ‘love jihad’ in Jharkhand. With scant evidence as usual

India’s most-read newspaper is crying “love jihad” again, this time with the apparent aim of whipping up fear over migrants from Bangladesh.

In an “investigation” published in its national edition, Dainik Jagran claims the Santhal Pargana region of Jharkhand is affected by a “love jihad conspiracy” hatched in Bangladesh.

The evidence? It claimed that there are “several” families in the region whose daughters were “trapped” in a “premjaal”, love trap, by Muslims and converted to marry them. The newspaper quotes just one unnamed woman who was allegedly trapped in “premjaal”, but claims that several others like her were seduced by Muslim men pretending to be Hindu and they only learned the true identities of their loves when it was too late to leave the relationship.

Even if this is presumed to be true, where’s the Bangladesh link?

The paper argues that an intelligence report prepared when BJP’s Raghubar Das was the chief minister noted a demographic change because of an influx of Bangladeshi migrants in the state.

But, again, how is the alleged influx of migrants linked to Bangladeshi “love jihad”? The report cites the murder of Ankita Singh, alleging that Naeem, a friend of the main accused Shahrukh, was influenced by the proscribed outfit Ansarul Bangla which “influences Muslims youths to convert and marry Hindu girls”. The terror angle in the Ankita case is a police claim that is yet to make its way to the chargesheet.

The newspaper also claims that the intelligence report flagged the rising influence of such organisations as Ansarul Bangla, Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh and the Popular Front of India in the state.

A brief report headlined “Cyber Crime Also a Weapon” accompanies the main report. It states that 381 birth certificates have been fraudulently obtained from the Taljhari primary health centre in Dumka district and casually declares, “There can be a Bangladeshi connection to this fraud”.

Next to the brief report are a couple of bullet points citing figures from the nondescript intelligence report on immigrant influx and the “threat to security”.

The concluding paragraph of the “investigation” mentions the police advocating for a National Register of Citizens to identify Bangladeshi immigrants.

This is not the first time that Dainik Jagran has published such a report. Newslaundry has previously documented how the paper tortured data to declare a love jihad conspiracy in Uttar Pradesh.