Alleged 'Victims' Of Religious Conversion Can Be Booked For Offence If They Induce Others To Convert Religion: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court has held that persons claiming to be "victims" of religious conversion can also be booked for the said offence if they subsequently indulge in the act of inducing other persons to convert.

It thus rejected the contention of several men accused of religious conversion, that they were themselves victims of religious conversion and FIR against them is misconceived.

The court said that had those persons, after getting converted, not indulged into any activity of further converting other persons, they could have been said to be victims of religious conversion.  

Justice Nirzar S Desai observed,

"However, on account of their act of influencing and pressurizing and alluring other persons to convert to Islam, as can be seen from the FIR as well as statements of the witnesses, of course, those allegations are prima facie in nature for which today, upon examination of material produced, the Court is of the view that conversion of the victims indicates that a prima facie offence is made out. Therefore, it cannot be accepted that those persons who are arraigned as accused who are originally Hindus and subsequently were converted to Islam, can be said to be the victims on account of allegations made in the FIR as well as the material collected during the course of investigation by way of charge-sheet papers," the court said. 

The Court was hearing a batch of petitions moved by various accused persons seeking quashing of offences under IPC Sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 153(B)(1)(C) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 153(A)(1) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295(A) (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).

The applicant-accused claimed that they were originally Hindus and were converted to Islam by other accused persons. Thus, they can be said to be victim of conversion and could not have been arraigned as accused.

The Court however noted the FIR which indicated that the complainant was lured to convert into Islam by the applicants by "pressurizing and alluring other persons".

"It is their further act of converting further people around 100 in numbers of 37 families to Islam would prima facie make out an offence against them and, therefore, I do not see any reason to interfere with the trial," the court said. 

With respect to another connected petition, wherein the petitioners were aggrieved by "issuance of witness summons", the State submitted that these petitioners will not be called for interrogation or recording statements and they will not be stated as witnesses as well. In view of this statement the petitioners' counsel sought to withdraw the plea which was permitted. 

In another plea, where the petitioner, a foreign national, was accused of funding religious conversion, the court said that "prima facie can be said to have been made out against the present applicant" from the record. 

It also noted that the petitioner had visited India 25 times prior to registration of offence and he was not cooperating the investigation post registration of FIR, and thus found no reason to entertain his plea. The court thus rejected pleas seeking quashing of FIR. 

Background

The complainant has alleged that in 2018 he was converted to Islam, wherein he was taken to Surat and through misrepresentation he asked to give his thumb impression on a paper which was already typed after which his name was changed and a new Aadhar Card was prepared.

The FIR alleges that one of the accused is getting financial aid for carrying out religion conversion from three men who have together already converted around 100 persons belonging to 37 families from Hindu to Muslim community by alluring them with money and other temptations.

The FIR alleges that the complainant came to know that this is a nation wide conspiracy to convert Hindus to Muslims and the same is going on "account of huge financial aid received by them from foreign country".

When he started resisting, he was threatened by the accused persons, "as they have connections from Kashmir to Pakistan", the FIR alleges. 

The complainant approached the police and an FIR was registered against 9 persons named in the FIR. Upon investigation, in total 16 persons were arraigned as accused and out of these 16, some of accused had moved pleas seeking quashing of the FIR.

Case title: X v/s  STATE OF GUJARAT & ANR. and Batch

R/CRIMINAL MISC. APPLICATION (FOR QUASHING & SET ASIDE FIR/ORDER) NO.309 of 2022

Click Here To Read/Download Order