Allahabad HC grants bail to UP man arrested for conversion

At the bail hearing, Arif’s lawyer, advocate Gopal Misra, contended that his client had been falsely and fraudulently implicated as part of a conspiracy arising from enmity.

Misra told the court there were contradictions between the initial FIR and later statements by the complainant, and that she had not directly accused Arif of any crime. He referred to a love letter, allegedly written by the victim to Arif, which he claimed demonstrated she was a “willing party” in the relationship. He also argued that the victim’s family was pressuring her to give statements against Arif and that there was no direct evidence of coercion.

The single-judge bench of Justice Gautam Chowdhary granted bail after noting “the nature of the evidence and the absence of any substantial contradictory material,” and that the material on record was “not likely to be tampered with.” The judge emphasised that the decision to grant bail did not amount to any comment on the merits of the case.

Arif was ordered released on furnishing a personal bond with two sureties. His bail terms bar him from tampering with evidence, threatening witnesses and require him to cooperate with the ongoing trial.

Arif was arrested on July 20 after an FIR was lodged by local RSS worker Sandeep Kaushik. The complaint initially alleged Arif of being involved in “love jihad” by allegedly luring a Hindu woman into a relationship with the intention of unlawfully converting her religion. The FIR was subsequently expanded to include offences under the BNS and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act.

Following the arrest, Afaq Ahmad, Ari’s brother posted WhatsApp messages asserting that his brother had been framed and expressing fear of lynching, while also expressing faith in the judiciary.

In the messages, Afaq allegedly said that his brother had been “framed in a false case by putting political pressure on the police”, and lamented that “a call has been made for a total boycott of my family’s livelihood”.

Last month, a division bench of the high court, while refusing to quash an FIR against Afaq for spreading religious hatred, had noted that his message “definitely conveys an underlying and subtle message that his brother has been targeted in a false case because of belonging to a particular religious community.”

Afaq’s lawyer Syed Shahnawaz Shah had argued that the message merely conveyed his client’s anguish. The HC disagreed, observing that the “unsaid words” carried an implicit communal charge.

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