Allahabad HC grants bail to man held under Uttar Pradesh's anti-conversion ordinance

Allahabad: A man arrested under the stringent Uttar Pradesh anti-conversion ordinance for allegedly abducting and raping a woman and then seeking to convert her to his own religion for marrying her, has been granted bail by the Allahabad High Court. Justice Rahul Chaturvedi granted bail to Mahoba resident Munna Khan after finding that the alleged victim was in a relationship with the accused, living in her neighbourhood, and observing that she was a wilful and active participant in all actions faced by her. Doubting the credibility of the accusations in the FIR lodged at the behest of the victim, the bench wondered how come she got aware of all her rights after this ordinance coming into the existence and said, “Her mental thinking exposes about her conduct.” The accused was arrested following the registration of an FIR at Kotwali Nagar police station in Mahoba on 4 March this year. The FIR was under section 3 and 5(1) of UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, accusing the man of abducting and raping a girl in his neighbourhood and then persuading her to convert to Islam to marry him, despite the girl having been married to a different man two months ago in December 2020. The judge also took note of the woman’s statement to a magisterial court under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code that she was in relation for over four years with the accused before marrying another man on 8 December, 2020. After marrying the man, she went to Delhi with him and returned to her parents in Mahoba on 8 February, but ran away with Munna Khan on 18 February and stayed at Khan’s sister’s place in Orai till 2 March. But in her FIR lodged two days later, she accused Khan and his sister of persuading her to change her religion, noted the judge and said despite having a relationship with the accused for four years, the victim appears to have become aware of her rights a suddenly after the promulgation of this ordinance.