The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has registered the first case under the newly adopted law prohibiting the Unlawful Conversion of Religion.
The First Information Report (FIR) has been lodged against a Muslim in the Bareilly district of the state.
“The FIR was registered at Devraniya police station of Bareilly. A Hindu man of Sharifnagar village accused a Muslim man of mounting pressure on his daughter to convert her to Islam,” said Avinash Chandra, assistant director-general (ADG) at Bareilly, confirming that the first case has been registered as per the provisions of the recent law.
According to Chandra, the complainant alleged that the Muslim has known his daughter since her college days. Chandra added that it has been suggested that the man has been harassing the woman and her family members for the past few months. The accused is absconding, according to police.
According to the reports in local media, the accused lives in the same village as the woman whom he is alleged to be pestering and the incident has soured the area's communal harmony.
Uttar Pradesh became the first state earlier this week to bring in a law against forced religious conversions.
The law, Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, approved by the state cabinet, aims to curb the instances of Muslim men marrying Hindu women with the design of converting them to Islam after marriage. After the law was passed, a minister in Uttar Pradesh's cabinet, Sidharth Nath Singh said there have been hundreds of instances where Hindu girls have been unlawfully forced to convert to Islam.
