Karnataka registers first case under anti-conversion law

The state police have registered the first case under the Karnataka Protection of Freedom of Religion Act, also known as the anti-conversion law, which was notified on September 30 this year.

Yeshwantpur police registered the FIR on October 13 under Section 5 of the Act and arrested Syed Mueen, a resident of BK Nagar in northern Bengaluru.

Mueen, who runs a chicken stall, is accused of luring and converting 18-year-old Khushboo to Islam on the promise of marriage, a police officer said.

Khushboo's family hails from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, and has been living in Bengaluru for the last 10 years. Her father, Surendra Yadav, is a painter by profession. Mother Gyantidevi is a homemaker. The couple has two more daughters and a son.

Gyantidevi filed a police complaint on October 5, hours after Khushboo went missing. Gyantidevi suspected that her daughter had eloped with Mueen, who had been trying to woo Khushboo for the last six months. This complaint didn't specify religious conversion.

Police registered a missing person case and started searching for Khushboo. Khushboo returned three days later — on October 8 — and informed her family that she had accepted Islam. Gyantidevi and her husband tried to reason with Khushboo but she didn't agree. Gyantidevi filed another police complaint on October 13, alleging forced conversion.

Taking cognisance of the fresh complaint, the police invoked Section 5 of the new Act.

Vinayak Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), told DH: "We have registered a case under the new law. It's a case of religious conversion on the promise of marriage."

A well-placed police source said the girl appeared to have converted to Islam of her own free will but did not follow the procedure stipulated under the new law.

Any person who desires to change his/her religion is required to give a declaration in Form-I at least 30 days in advance to the district magistrate or the additional district magistrate. The person who performs the conversion ceremony must submit Form II at least 30 days in advance.

The district magistrate has to call for objections, if any, to the proposed religious conversion. In case of objections received within 30 days, he shall have an inquiry conducted by officials of the Revenue or Social Welfare Department. This inquiry shall establish the genuine intention, purpose and cause of the proposed conversion. If the inquiry makes out a case under this Act, the district magistrate should ask the police to initiate criminal action.

The police source said that in the present case, the couple didn't get married before the conversion. Mueen took the girl to a dargah in Penukonda dargah in Andhra Pradesh where the religious conversion ceremony was performed, the source said.

When the police inquired with the girl as to why she had changed her religion, she denied that she was forced to do so. The boy's parents told the police they didn't know about the new law and regretted the incident.

According to Section 5 of the new law, forced conversion is punishable by imprisonment for three to five years and a fine of Rs 25,000.

A court has remanded Mueen in judicial custody.