UP: Naib tehsildar booked for second marriage, new wife for ‘conversion’

A 32-year-old naib tehsildar has been booked for allegedly marrying for a second time after “adopting Islam”, police said in Hamirpur on Wednesday. They identified the accused as Ashish Gupta, who hails from Kanpur and is posted in Hamirpur’s Maudaha area.

Police have also booked his second wife, her father, her uncle and five others, including a cleric, in connection with the case lodged at the Kotwali police station. Police said Ashish’s first wife, Kanpur-based Arti Gupta, is the complainant. She has alleged that the woman and her relatives “forced her husband to change his religion” for the second marriage.

The accused has been booked under IPC Section 494 (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife), and sections of the anti-conversion law. Additional Superintendent of Police (Hamirpur) Maya Ram Verma said that two persons have been detained for questioning.

“According to the complaint, on December 24, the accused was ‘forced to change his religion’ at a mosque after which he married the woman in the presence of the woman’s father, uncle and five persons,” said an officer.