Allegedly Forced Victim To Accept Islam & Performed Nikaah: Allahabad HC Denies Bail To Maulana
|The Allahabad High Court denied bail to maulana who was accused of religious conversion while noting that victim was allegedly forced to accept ‘Islam’ and Nikaah was performed.
The Court said that maulana being the religious converter is equally liable under the provisions of the U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.
The Court was hearing a Bail Application seeking bail in a Case registered under Section 3/5(1) of the U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 during the pendency of the trial.
The bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal observed, “The victim/Informant in her statement recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. had categorically submitted that she was forced to accept 'Islam' and Nikaah was performed. The applicant being "Religion Convertor" is equally liable under the Act, 2021.”
Advocate Nand Kishore Mishra appeared for the Appellant and the Government Advocate appeared for the Respondent.
Brief Facts-
In the present case, the Applicant contended he is Maulana/Religious Priest and he had only performed Nikah of the Informant with the accused Amaan and had not forcibly converted the Informant to "Islam". He does not have any criminal history and is languishing in jail for more than 2 months. He has further relied upon Nikaahnama which bears the stamp and his signature and beyond that, he has no role to play.
The Court observed, “in the recent past many such examples came to light where gullible persons have been converted from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by fraudulent means.”
The Court further observed, “Religion Convertor" means person of any religion who performs any act of conversion from one religion to another religion and by whatever name he is called such as Father, Karmkandi, Maulvi or Mulla etc.”
The Court noted that the applicant who comes under the definition of "Religion Convertor", as defined in Section 2(i) of Act, 2021, had got the Nikaah ceremony of the Informant with accused Amaan without obtaining the necessary declaration from the District Magistrate given in Section 8 of Act, 2021.
Accordingly, the Court rejected the Bail Application.