The police in Uttar Pradesh ’s Bijnor district have filed a chargesheet under the state’s anti-conversion law against a 22-year-old carpent...
The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district have filed a chargesheet under the state’s anti-conversion law against a 22-year-old carpenter for allegedly kidnapping a Dalit woman in December, The Indian Express reported on Saturday.
Investigating Officer Kuldeep Kumar Gupta told the newspaper that the accused, identified as Afzal, was charged under provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020. Besides this, the police have invoked rape charge against him based on the woman’s statement to the district magistrate.
“The woman also stated that the accused tried to convert her religion,” Gupta said. “Besides rape and Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, we have filed the chargesheet under Indian Penal Code Section 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, etc) and SC/ST [Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes] Act.”
The chargesheet is believed to be the first under the new stringent ordinance, according to some reports. But Bijnor Superintendent of Police Dharamvir Singh said: “We cannot claim it to be the first chargesheet filed under the new law.” He added that the chargesheet was forwarded to a court on December 19, according to PTI.
The police said that the woman had come to Bijnor from Chandigarh last month to attend...
