Police in Vadodara arrested a 26-year-old man for allegedly pretending to be a Christian in order to cheat on a woman of another religion and to force her to marry.
Officials say the woman alleged the defendant raped her multiple times and forcibly married her in February this year.
This is the first case in Gujarat where a person is under the newly notified law against violent / fraudulent religious conversion by marriage.
The woman filed a complaint against the defendant Samir Qureshi at Gotri Police Station in Vadodara. After an FIR, police arrested him under the Gujarat 2021 Religious Freedom Act (Amendment).
The law requires severe punishment for violent religious conversion through marriage.
The accusations
The defendant is said to have contacted the woman on Instagram in 2019. He is said to have lured her by posing as a Christian and introducing himself as Sam Martin.
The woman had developed a relationship with the defendant under the impression that he was a Christian, the police said.
The woman alleged that the defendant took her to a hotel and raped her. He is also said to have taken some intimate photos of her and used her to blackmail her and rape her several times. The woman is said to have become pregnant twice and have to undergo an abortion.
“According to the complainant, the defendant captured her in the name of love using his false identity on social media and then raped her. The defendant blackmailed her with her offensive photos and forced her to marry him and underwent an abortion while advertising, “said Jayrajsinh Vala, deputy police superintendent, Zone 2, Vadodara City.
According to police, the woman learned the truth when she agreed to marry the defendant. During the wedding, a “Nikah” ceremony is said to have been organized instead of a Christian wedding.
Police said that after the wedding, the defendant changed his wife’s name and later forced her to convert.
What does the new law say?
The Gujarat Religious Freedom Act (Amendment) was passed by majority vote by the Gujarat Assembly on April 1 and approved by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat in May.
According to the government, the law is intended to “stem the emerging trend of enticing women to marry for the purpose of religious conversion.”
Under the new law, forcible conversion by marriage or marriage of a person or marriage assistance results in a prison sentence of three to five years and a fine of up to Rs 2 lakh.
If the victim is a minor, woman, Dalit or tribesman, the perpetrators can be punished with a prison sentence of four to seven years and a fine of no less than Rs 3 lakh.
(With contributions from Digvijay Pathak in Vadodara and agencies)
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