COURTESY HT NOV 30

In UP, Muslim man booked under new ‘love jihad’ law
Muslim man booked under new ‘love jihad’ law in UP
A Hindu man had accused the Muslim man of pressuring his daughter to convert to Islam
Rohit K Singh

letters@hindustantimes.com

LUCKNOW : Hours after Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel approved an ordinance promulgated by the state government against forced religious conversions, the police registered the first case under it against a Muslim man in Bareilly district on Saturday night, senior police officers said on Sunday.

Additional director general (ADG), Bareilly zone, Avinash Chandra confirmed that a first information report (FIR) was registered at the Devraniya police station in Bareilly. He said a Hindu man of Sharifnagar village had accused the Muslim man, identified as Owaish Ahmad, of pressuring his daughter to convert to Islam.

The ADG said the complainant alleged that the Muslim man knew his daughter from their college days; the complainant also said the man had been troubling his daughter and family members for the past few months. The FIR, a copy of which is in HT’s possession, said the man made abusive remarks against the family members and threatened them for opposing his moves to convert the woman to Islam.

Another Bareilly police officer, requesting anonymity, said the complainant and the accused Muslim man were from the same village, but they hadn’t married, and the incident had affected communal harmony in the neighbourhood.

He said the man was booked under sections 504 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for insulting a person and 506 for criminal intimidation.

The accused man and his father have been reported missing from the house.

Guresha, the accused’s sister, however, denied all allegations of wrongdoing by his brother. “My brother and the girl studied together. The girl later fled on her own,” she said, alleging that the girl has also told police that she fled home after being harassed by her family members.

Ahmad has also been booked under Section 3/5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, which came into effect on Saturday after the governor signed it.

The ordinance has provisions to check religious conversions carried out by “allurement, coercion, force, fraud, or marriage”.

The state cabinet had cleared the law earlier this month