Girish Mahajan, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Maharashtra’s minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, has claimed that the death of television actress Tunisha Sharma is a case of “love jihad” and that the state is planning to bring a strict law to curb such incidents. The remarks by the Maharashtra minister on Sunday came after the police arrested the deceased actress’ co-star Sheezan Khan on charges of abetting her suicide.
Tunisha Sharma, 21, was part of the show ‘Ali Baba: Dastaan-e–Kabul’ alongside Sheezan. She was found hanging in a bathroom on the sets of the show on Saturday. The police have said they suspect it to be a case of suicide. However, no suicide note has been recovered and an investigation is underway.
“TV actor Tushisha Sharma’s death is a matter of love jihad. Police are investigating the case. We are seeing that such cases are increasing day by day. We are mulling to bring a strict law against it,” Mahajan said, according to PTI.
The remarks by Mahajan come close on the heels of Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ statement that the government was in the process of studying rules framed by other states on “love jihad” and will arrive at a decision soon.
The Deputy CM’s statement came in reference to the alleged murder of Maharashtra’s Shraddha Walkar by Aaftab Poonawaala in Delhi in May this year. According to the Delhi Police, the accused strangled Shraddha to death before chopping her body into over 35 pieces and disposing of them across the national capital over the next several days.
The police have, however, ruled out blackmail or “love jihad” in their probe into the young girl’s death. Addressing a press conference today, Chandrakant Jadhav, ACP, Mumbai Police confirmed that Tunisha was in a relationship with her co-actor Sheezan and thy broke up 15 days ago.
“Tunisha’s mother filed a complaint, accused Sheezan was arrested and was produced in court where he was sent to 4-day judicial custody. Post-mortem report clearly specifies the cause of death of Tunisha as hanging,” said Jadhav.