A joint police operation spanning Gujarat to Assam led to the arrest of a man accused in a suspected &ldquo;love jihad&rdquo; case and the rescue of a 20-year-old woman from Gandhinagar.
The search began after the woman&rsquo;s father reported her missing from a village near Gandhinagar. Investigations revealed she had been enticed by Soif Abdul Manaf Uddin, an Assam native working as a housekeeping supervisor at a Gandhinagar hotel. Uddin allegedly lured her under the guise of a relationship and took her to his hometown.
The family, suspecting &ldquo;love jihad,&rdquo; approached SP Ravi Teja Vasamsetti. Under the guidance of DIG Virendra Singh Yadav and SP Vasamsetti, police teams from the Local Crime Branch and Sector-7 police, led by DySP Divyaprakash Gohil, Sub-Inspector U M Gadhvi, and Inspector J J Gadhvi, launched a large-scale search.
Tracking Uddin was difficult as he kept his phone on flight mode and relied only on Wi-Fi calls. Using digital analysis and human intelligence, police finally traced him to Murajar village in Hojai district, Assam. On Thursday, he was arrested and the woman was safely reunited with her family.
Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi praised the operation, warning that &ldquo;love jihad has no place in the state&rdquo; and promising strict legal action against offenders.
&ldquo;Love jihad&rdquo; is a politically charged term used by right-wing groups to allege Muslim men deceive Hindu women into marriage for conversion. Gujarat amended its Freedom of Religion Act in 2021, criminalising conversions through coercion, marriage, or deception.

Gujarat Girl Rescued in ‘Love Jihad’ Case, Brought

Accused held in Assam’s Hojai district after intensive hunt by Gandhinagar police

Gujarat Girl Rescued in ‘Love Jihad’ Case, Brought

Accused held in Assam’s Hojai district after intensive hunt by Gandhinagar police

September 19, 2025 | 16:40 IST