BAREILLY: Uttar PradeshThe first case reported under the newly enacted Illegal religious conversion law has been registered against a 22-year-old college student in Deorania Police Station in Bareilly district late on Saturday.
The young man had been forcing a 20-year-old interfaith married woman to change her. religion and start living with it. He visited his home regularly and threatened his family members with dire consequences. The police have registered him under section 3/5 of the Prohibition of the Illegal Religious Conversion Act along with sections 504 (breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
While campaigning for by-elections, CM Yogi Adityanath had announced that his government would enact a law that would prevent the forced conversion of marriage. The new act came into existence after the UP cabinet passed the ordinance on November 24 and Governor Anandiben Patel signed the law into law on November 28. It is a non-bail crime and the defendant can face a prison term of one year to 10 years with a cash fine of between 15,000 and 50,000.
Additional SP Sansaar Singh told TOI, “Defendant Uvaish Ahmad is a resident of the Shareefnagar town in Deorania. He had been forcing the girl, who is married, to change her religion and start living with him. Since this act was not updated in the computer database, we had to manually add it to the database. The defendant is a college student and aspires to graduate. We have deployed teams to catch him and force has been deployed outside the complainant’s home for safety. ”
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