Kin booked for forcing shooter to convert religion

The CBI on Monday said that national-level shooter Tarah Shahdev was allegedly harassed and forced to convert to another religion by her husband, Ranjit Singh Kohli, and motherin-law, Kaushal Rani.

A month after the couple married in July 2014, Shahdev lodged an FIR with Ranchi police against her husband and mother-in-law.

“The case came to CBI from Jharkhand high court on May 22, 2015, after a writ petition was filed by the president of an organisation called Akhand Bharat," said CBI spokesperson RK Gaur.

The agency has held that Kohli, Rani, and an acquaintance Mushtaque Ahmed allegedly forced Shahdev to convert to Islam and perform a ‘nikah’ ceremony. Ahmed was then registrar, vigilance, Jharkhand HC, and is currently under suspension for alleged criminal conspiracy, the CBI said on Monday.

The three were chargesheeted for criminal conspiracy read with IPC sections 496 (marriage ceremony fraudulently gone through without lawful marriage), 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 298(uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), 354-A(sexual harassment), 498 A and 506 (criminal intimidation).

Kohli, born a Sikh, had converted to Islam in 2007, and allegedly concealed his faith from Shahdev. Soon after, Shahdev said she found out Kohli had converted to Islam and had acquired the name Rakibul Hassan.

She accused her in-laws of harassing her and pressuring her to perform ‘nikah’. ”The court has issued notices to the accused to appear on June 1, 2017," the spokesperson said.