On 16 May 2023, a district court in the southwestern Uttar Pradesh (UP) city of Mahoba sentenced an autorickshaw driver named Munna Khan to five years imprisonment and a cumulative fine of Rs 97,000.

He was guilty, the judge said, under two sections of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021 relating to conversion by misrepresentation or fraud, and four sections of the India Penal Code 1860 (IPC), including kidnapping, rape and criminal intimidation of a Hindu woman who was in a consensual relationship with him for four years.

The woman, who was 19 years old at the time they started their relationship and married a Hindu man later, lived 50 m from him, but alleged she did not know he was Muslim, until he started forcing her to offer namaz and eat goat meat. She also accused him of filming and photographing their physical encounters, which he used, she said, to “blackmail” her.

After he had spent about three months in prison, the Allahabad High Court on 11 June 2021 released Khan on bail, expressing its scepticism of the case against him.

“It is unswallowable proposition (sic) that in a small city, like Mahoba, she was not aware about the background of applicant or about his religion that too for four good years,” said Justice Rahul Chaturvedi, who added that she was “a wilful and active participant in all actions faced by her”, with her behaviour “clearly indicating” that she wanted to continue the relationship after marriage.

“The bail applicant and the victim were in a relationship for the last four years when there was no UP’s (sic) anti-conversion law,” Justice Chaturvedi observed. “All of a sudden, after the coming of this ordinance into existence, she got (sic) aware of her rights. Her mental thinking exposed her conduct.” Yet, Justice Chaturvedi said his observations should not be used as a precedent or prejudice the case against him.


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