Bareilly police UP has made the first arrest three days after registering the first case under the newly-promulgated anti-conversion law. 22-year-old Uwaish Ahmad was booked on Sunday hours after the new ordinance against forced religious conversion came into effect.
The arrest was made under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, for "threatening to kidnap" and convert a 20-year-old married woman in Deorania area of the Bareilly district.
Since the case was registered the accused has been hiding.
After the arrest, Ahmad said he "feared being shot in an encounter".
Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Sansaar Singh said, "He may be under this impression, but police never intended to do any such thing as he is not a history-sheeter.”
"We were only searching for him and several teams were deployed in neighbouring districts as well. He was produced before a magistrate on Wednesday who sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
The police said the statement of the complainant and the witnesses will be recorded soon and will complete the investigation in this case.
Ahmad and the woman were school friends.
The woman’s family had filed a case against Ahmad last year when she went missing, but later it was found that she had left home with the man on her own will. They later said they wanted to live together.
She was found in Bhopal while both were on their way to Mumbai.
She was married to another man a few months later but was still stalked by Ahmad.
The woman’s father in his complaint has accused Ahmad of stalking his daughter and harassing her for the past three years.
Also Read: Retired High Court Judge CS Karnan arrested for passing offensive remarks on women judges
Ahmad has been booked under Section 3/5 of the ordinance, along with sections 504 (breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
Ahmad told reporters: "I have been arrested under the love jihad law. I have no link with the woman, she got married a year back. I am innocent."
Source: IANS