UP anti-conversion law: Six FIRs in five districts; 29 booked

Within a week of promulgation of the new law against forced and dishonest conversions in Uttar Pradesh, six FIRs have been registered in five districts, police said on Sunday.

The law aims to check religious conversions carried out by “allurement, coercion, force, fraud, or marriage”. Violations of the law have been made cognizable and non-bailable offence.

Bareilly has recorded two FIRs while 1 FIR each has been registered in Sitapur, Moradabad, Mau and Muzaffarnagar.

Also, 10 people, out of the 29 booked under this new law, have been arrested in three cases registered in Sitapur, Bareilly and Moradabad districts since Wednesday, police said in Lucknow.

A senior police official said seven people were arrested in connection with an FIR registered with Tambaur police station of Sitapur district while one arrest was made in the connection with the FIR registered at Devraniya police station of Bareilly. Meanwhile, Moradabad police on Friday arrested a Muslim man and his brother under the new law when he visited the registrar’s office to record his marriage to a Hindu woman. An agency report quoted Moradabad’s Kanth station house officer Ajay Gautam as saying that the two men were arrested on the basis of a complaint by the woman’s parents.

“In the Sitapur case, an FIR over the elopement of a 19-year-old girl was registered on November 26 and the provisions of new ordinance , which came into being two days later, were added later. The girl’s father alleged in the FIR that she was abducted by a Muslim man to compel her for marriage. He later stated that the girl was abducted to be forced into conversion,” said the police.

Another official at the police headquarters said the first two cases under this law were registered in Bareilly on November 28 and 29.

In the second case in Bareilly, Tahir Hussain and his brothers Sageer and Munna were accused of forceful religious conversion. The complaint was lodged by Tahir’s wife.

Another FIR under the new law was registered against 14 people in Mau district after a woman eloped with a Muslim man who was already married to someone else. The FIR was registered against Shabab Khan and 13 others under IPC Sections 366, 506 and 3/5 of new law at Chiraiyakot police station on Tuesday.

Yet another FIR was lodged at Mansoorpur police station of Muzaffarnagar district on Thursday wherein two Muslim men were booked for allegedly trying to force a married Hindu woman to convert. They were booked under the new law as well as Sections 504 (criminal intimidation), 506 and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.