Rajkot court has refused to grant bail to a Muslim man who accused of forcible conversion under the amended Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act.
The order came after the Gujarat High Court stayed the operation of eight sections of the new Act, including Section 4, under which the man was charged.
In the first case registered in Saurashtra under the amended Act that came into force on June 15 this year, a garage owner in Dhoraji town of Rajkot was booked for allegedly raping a married woman and trying to force her to convert to Islam.
He allegedly befriended her after claiming he was an unmarried man, despite being married with three children. The FIR was filed by a 29-year old Hindu woman on July 11 and also accused the man of repeated rape (IPC section 36 (2) (n)) and criminal intimidation (IPC section 506 (2)).
As recorded in the court’s order, based on the contents of the FIR, the complainant, who is also married and has a daughter aged four years, had met the accused at his garage when she went to get her two-wheeler repaired.
After exchanging numbers, the two continued to be in touch and, as per the FIR, the woman at that time “was not maintaining good relations with her husband.”
As alleged in the FIR, the two developed a physical relationship and the woman was under the impression that the man is unmarried.
According to the FIR, after the complainant realised the accused is married, he had allegedly told her that if she embraces Islam he will divorce his first wife and marry her. It was further alleged in the FIR that an attempt was made to convert the victim by forcing her to read “Kalima” from a maulvi through Instagram.