FIR filed the father’s complaint that the defendant wanted to ‘coerce, persuade and seduce’ his daughter to convert.
The Uttar Pradesh police have filed the first case under the new ordinance against illegal conversion a day after its enactment.
Police filed an FIR in Bareilly under Sections 3 and 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Illegal Conversion of Religion Prohibition Ordinance, 2020, which was approved by the State Cabinet earlier this week and promulgated on November 27 by the Governor Anandiben Patel.
Bareilly police said the FIR was brought against a person at the Deorania Police Station for allegedly trying to coerce a 20-year-old girl into converting her to his religion and marrying him.
Articles 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code were also invoked.
The FIR came forward on the complaint of Tikaram Rathore, a resident of Sharifnagar village, late on Friday. Mr. Tikaram alleged that the defendant had developed a friendship with his daughter during her upbringing and wanted to “coerce, persuade and seduce her into conversion.”
“Despite repeated disapproval of my family and myself, [the boy] He is not listening and is putting pressure on me and my family through abuse and death threats … ”, alleged Mr. Tikaram.
(Rural) Police Superintendent Bareilly Sansar Singh said that a case had been brought before for the kidnapping of the girl against the boy. “He was pressuring her to convert from her religion and get married,” Singh said.
The defendant is on the run and there were attempts to arrest him, the officer said.
‘Problem solved in 2019’
However, the woman’s brother, Kesarpal Rathore, said the defendant’s case was settled in 2019. His sister had also married another child in May this year, he said.
Mr. Kesarpal said that the family did not approach the police for the latest FIR, claiming that the police came to their home and questioned them about the previous case. Then the police took his father Tikaram with them to the police station, Kesarpal said. The Hindu.
“The police came to our house. And said there was an old file lying [with them]. The police told me they take it away [father] to the police station to be questioned for an investigation, ”he said.
Kesarpal said his sister had eloped with the boy in October 2019, but was soon located within three to four days with the help of police.
The matter was closed in Bareilly district court because the girl’s family wanted to keep the matter secret, Mr. Kesarpal and a police officer said.
“The case came to an end a year ago with the court decision,” Kesarpal said, stating that there was no contact between the boy and the girl after the agreement and their subsequent marriage.
However, the station official, Deorania Daya Shankar, said the accused constantly harassed and pressured the girl and her family even after their marriage. “Even yesterday, he had issued a threat, said the [girl’s father]”Said Mr. Shankar The Hindu.
“Even after she got married, he was picking on her,” the officer said.
The girl’s family had previously filed a kidnapping case against the boy, but due to social honor and concerns about their marriage, they changed the statement to keep the matter secret, the officer said.
“They had changed their statements so that they did not face any obstacles in marrying the girl off. They rescued their own honor, ”said the officer.
“Uske baad bhi yeh aadmi peecha nahi chor raha hai unka (Even after that, this person was relentless in his search), ”Shankar said.
The official also said that the complaint against the accused, on the basis of which the FIR was registered, was received on Saturday.
Both the girl and the boy are adults, he clarified.
The accused boy, who lives in the same town as the girl, is a day laborer, the Station House officer said.
New ordinance
The ordinance makes religious conversion a recognizable and non-bailable crime, inviting penalties of up to 10 years in prison if it is determined to be carried out by marriage or by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, seduction or other means. allegedly fraudulent.
Violation of the provisions of the law would imply a prison sentence of not less than one year, extendable to five years with a fine of ₹ 15,000. However, if a minor, a woman or a person belonging to the registered Caste or Tribal communities were converted by the illicit means mentioned, the prison sentence would be a minimum of three years and could be extended to 10 years with a fine of ₹ 25,000. .
The ordinance also establishes strict action against mass conversions, which would invite a jail term of no less than three years and up to 10 years and a fine of ₹ 50,000.
Under Section 4 of the ordinance, any aggrieved person, his parents, brother, sister or any other person who is related to him by blood, marriage or adoption can file an illegal conversion FIR.
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