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Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that his government was dealing strictly with those who "trap" Hindu girls and incidents of cow slaughter, according to an NDTV report.
At the ground-breaking ceremony for a building of the Raika Education Charitable Trust in Ahmedabad, the Chief Minister said that his government had brought in several laws with strict provisions to deal with these issues.
In April 2021, the Gujarat Assembly passed the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021 which has provisions for three to ten years of imprisonment for religious conversions or inter faith marriages "done by trickery".
On 19 August, the Gujarat High Court stayed the operation of the law in connection with inter-faith marriages, with the judges saying:
Although 'love jihad' remains an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory popularised by fringe right-wing groups, several BJP-led states including Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have passed similar 'anti-conversion' laws to target it.
The Rupani-led Gujarat government had also brought in the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, 2017 that provides for harsher punishment and penalties for cow slaughter in the state.
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