New Delhi: Hours after Governor Anandiben Patel enacted the controversial Uttar Pradesh Illegal Conversion of Religion Prohibition Ordinance, 2020, the state police filed the first case in Bareilly.
But questions are already being asked about the case, which seems tailor-made to justify the swift enactment of the law.
In an FIR registered at the Deonaria police station on Saturday, one Tikaram, a resident of the Bareilly village of Sharifnagar, said that a Muslim had befriended his daughter while they were studying together and wanted to “coerce, persuade and seduce her into joining. convert “.
“Despite the repeated disapproval of my family and me, he (the child) is not listening and is putting pressure on me and my family through abuse and death threats to fulfill his wish,” Tikaram said, citing FIR .
Bareilly (rural) Police Superintendent Sansar Singh said The Hindu that a case of the kidnapping of the girl against the man had already been registered before the new law was invoked to present a separate FIR. “He was pressuring her to convert from her religion and get married,” Singh said, adding that the accused person is on the run.
But the girl’s brother, Kesarpal Rathore, told the newspaper reporter that the case was old and had been solved in 2019. The woman had eloped with the Muslim in October 2019 but police located the couple.
“The case came to an end a year ago with the court decision,” he said, alleging that there was no contact between the man and his girl sister after the agreement and their subsequent marriage to another child in May 2020.
Interestingly, he said that the family had not approached the police to learn about the latest FIR, but that it was the police who came to their home to question them about the previous case. “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, “said the Hindu, quoting.
However, the police have charged the man under Section 3 of the new ordinance, which says that “no person will convert or attempt to convert another person from one religion to another” using coercion, force or seduction, etc. .
When asked about the charge in light that the above matter had been resolved, Deonaria SHO said The Hindu that the family had previously decided to silence the matter to protect their honor and claimed that the man was harassing her even after they were married.
But if the alleged case is actually that of a former lover who allegedly harasses a woman who has married someone else, it is unclear why the law that is being pressed against him is the anti-conversion ordinance.
Under the new law, forced religious conversions will be treated as recognizable and non-bail offenses, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison if the defendant is found to have married through “misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, seduction or another alleged fraudulent means ”. Other violations of the law also mention that the culprits can be imprisoned for more than one year extendable to five years with a fine of 15,000 rupees. In the event of the illegal conversion of a minor or a woman from a recognized caste or tribe community, the punishment could be extended to 10 years with a fine of Rs 25,000.
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