Prayagraj: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday informed the Allahabad high court that the state police has dropped charges under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, against one Nadeem as no evidence in support of religious conversion came forward during investigation.
In the affidavit filed by the state government, it has been clearly stated that no evidence was found that accused Nadeem was having ‘any illicit relationship with the woman in question’.
Further, no evidence was found in support of the allegation that Nadeem was trying for her religious conversion as alleged by the informant, Akshay Kumar, in the FIR he had filed against Nadeem.
An FIR was lodged against Nadeem at Mansoorpur police station in Muzaffarnagar only after two days of promulgation of UP government’s new anti-conversion law, alleging that he was trying to marry a woman of the district with the intention of her religious conversion.
While hearing a writ petition filed by Nadeem on Thursday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery directed the state government to file its reply in the case and fixed January 15 as the next date of hearing.
Earlier, on December 18, 2020, the high court had asked the UP Police not to take any coercive action against Nadeem, and tagged this matter with two other PILs challenging the constitutional validity of the ordinance.
On Thursday, the court also extended the interim order dated December 18, which had stayed the arrest of the accused till further orders of the court.
Incidentally, this is the first criminal case under anti-conversion ordinance where the court had stayed an arrest.
During the court proceedings, senior advocate SFA Naqvi, who represented the petitioner, argued that the ordinance is ultra vires of the Constitution of India and any criminal proceeding initiated under the provisions of the ordinance shall be quashed.
Nadeem, a resident of Haridwar, was booked by the UP Police on November 29, 2020, on a complaint filed by Akshay Kumar of Muzaffarnagar.
Nadeem later sought quashing of the FIR lodged against him under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and Sections 3 and 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020.
It was alleged in the FIR that Nadeem developed an illicit relation with the complainant’s wife with the purpose of converting her religion by marriage, and was attempting to convert her by threat as well as by exerting undue pressure.
Nadeem has denied all the allegations and asserted that he is a poor labourer who had been falsely implicated in the case by the complainant merely to avoid payment of some dues which the complainant owes to him.
Subsequently, the police after investigation had dropped the charges under the anti-conversion law but filed a charge sheet against the petitioner Nadeem under sections 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code as it was found during investigation that on one occasion he had called the woman and threatened to kill her.