UP files first FIR under ordinance against forced religious conversions

Hours after governor approves law, case lodged in Bareilly

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

Additional director general (ADG), Bareilly zone, Avinash Chandra confirmed that the first information report (FIR) was registered at Devraniya police station of Bareilly. He said Tikaram Rathore of Sharifnagar village had accused Owaish Ahmad of mounting pressure on his daughter to convert to Islam.

ADG said the complainant alleged that Ahmad knew his daughter since college days and somehow managed to mislead her. The complainant also said Ahmad had been troubling his daughter and family members for the past few months.

The FIR, a copy of which is in HT’s possession, stated that the accused hurled abusive remarks and threatened the family with dire consequences on facing opposition to his moves for religious conversion of the woman. It further said that the accused was forcibly trying to convert the woman’s religion.

Another Bareilly police official said the complainant and the accused were from the same village, they were not married, and the incident had affected communal harmony in the locality. He said the accused had been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 504 for insulting a person and 506 for criminal intimidation. He was also booked under Section 3/5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, that came into effect from 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 cleared the law earlier this month, targeting what many right-wing outfits term “love jihad”, where Muslim men marry Hindu women with the alleged aim of changing the latter’s religion after marriage. According to the ordinance, marriages, where the intention is to change the woman’s religion, will be declared null and void.

Under the provisions of the new law, the violations have been made a cognizable and