Bangalore, Oct 26 (IANS) Karnataka Police will probe whether a movement reportedly called the ‘love jihad’ exists in the state after charges that Muslim youths were luring non-Muslim women with promise of marriage and forcibly converting them to Islam, state Home Minister V.S. Acharya said Monday.

The Criminal Investigation Department will find out the source of funds and the people behind such a movement, if it exists, and submit report in 15 days, Acharya told reporters after meeting senior police officials here.

The meeting followed a high court order to probe the existence of ‘love jihad’ in the state.

Justice K. Sreedhar Rao and Justice Ravi Malimath gave the direction Oct 21 during hearing of a habeas corpus petition by C. Selvaraj of Chamarajnagar district, about 180 km from here.

Selvaraj said in his petition that his daughter Siljaraj was missing since August last year. He came to know that she had eloped with a Muslim youth to Kerala.

Siljaraj, who was produced before the court by police, told the judges that she had married Aksar of Kannur in Kerala, on her own and was undergoing religious training after getting converted to Islam.

Rao and Malimath directed her to stay with her parents till the police complete the investigations. The court also said that since she was an adult, if it was found to be a bona-fide love marriage, she could go back to Aksar.