By Scroll Staff
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday arrested five persons, including two clerics, in Bijnor district for allegedly forcing a Hindu man to convert before marrying a Muslim woman, The Indian Express reported.
The wedding took place in Dhampur on Saturday night.
The individuals have been charged under the state’s Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Act.
The police filed a first information report after Jaswant Singh, the father of 24-year-old Mukul Singh, filed a complaint on Sunday, claiming that his son had been forced to convert to Islam by the woman, 21-year-old Shayma, and her parents before the wedding. He alleged that his son’s name had also been changed.
Members of Hindutva outfits accompanied Singh to the police station to file the complaint and held a protest demanding the arrest of those responsible for the allegedly forced religious conversion, the newspaper reported.
“Based on the FIR under Section 3 of the anti-conversion law, we have arrested the two maulvis Qari Irshad and Gufran, the parents Mohammed Shahid and Rukhsana Begum, and the woman Shayma,” the newspaper quoted Keeratpur Police Station’s Station House Officer Rakesh Kumar as saying.
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