Bhopal (MP), July 12:
The police in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh have arrested a forty-year-old
man on Friday under new anti-conversion law after his former live-in partner
and her mother filed a complaint with the local police accusing him of raping
and forcing her to convert to Islam.
The women levelled rape
and conversion charges after staying with the accused Rafi Khan, for a period
of 15 years and is also a mother of their 13-year old daughter.
Police superintendent
Dharamveer Yadav said Khan has been booked under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of
Religion Act and Indian Penal Code’s Sections 376 (rape) and 419 (cheating).
“The 35-year-old woman
filed a complaint that Khan met her 15 years ago and introduced himself as
Rakesh Kushwaha. He was a friend of the woman’s husband, whom she married 16
years ago. They got into a relationship. Khan promised to marry the woman. The
woman’s husband left her. and then Khan refused to marry her. Instead, he
convinced her to live with her without getting married”, informed the police.
Yadav said the woman
has claimed she got to know about Khan’s real name and religion after their
daughter was born. He added Khan allegedly sold the woman’s house and ended the
relationship. Yadav said Khan would come to visit the daughter and the woman
and wanted her to convert. “The woman ended the relationship with Khan, but he
raped her many times,” Yadav said.
The senior police
official said that Khan insisted the woman change her religion long back, but she
does not have any paper to prove this. “We are investigating whether the woman
changed her religion or not.”
Over 30 cases have
been registered under the anti-conversation law that came into force on January
9, 2021. The law prohibits conversion by “misrepresentation, allurement, and
use of threat or force, undue influence, coercion, marriage or any fraudulent
means”. Four petitions are pending against the law in the high court.
Activists have questioned the law and alleged it has been enacted in Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh to harass minorities. “In this case, how is it possible that the accused has started harassing the woman to change the religion now? In many cases, women are using the law to end inter-religious relationships” said LS Hardenia, who has filed a petition against the law.