Tension in Aligarh village after seven arrested for ‘conversion’

Irked over it, some local residents gheroed Suraj Pal’s house and staged a protest claiming they had come to their area to convert the villagers. Hearing about the incident, district officials and police rushed to the spot. They brought members of the congregation preaching Islam and also Suraj Pal to Mandrak police station.

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Within an hour, the police station was flooded with political leaders including BJP Mayor Shakuntala Bharti.

Following protest, an FIR was registered against seven members of the congregation — all residents of Aligarh — as well as Suraj Pal under Section 153 A of the IPC (Promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony). The case was filed on a complaint by village pradhan Satish Singh.

Soon, a group of people belonging to Muslim community reached Mandrak police station and claimed that the accused were falsely implicated in the case and they had nothing to do with conversion. Samajwadi Party MLA from Aligarh Jafar Alam also called up Aligarh police claiming that the members of the congregation were innocent.

The houses of all seven accused are located under Kotwali police station area in Aligarh.

Later in the evening police released them from the station on surety bonds.

Additional Superintendent of Police, Aligarh, Sansar Singh said all persons arrested in the case had been released. He said that the situation is under control and a police team has been deployed in Mainath village.

Circle Officer, Aligarh, Om Prakash Singh said prima facie it appears that allegation of conversion is false. He added that Suraj Pal claims that he knew all seven Muslims and offered them water because they were thirsty. They stayed at Suraj Pal’s house for around two hours.

Suraj Pal also told police that since it was time for namaz, they asked for his permission to offer namaz and he allowed them at his place.

BJP Mayor from Aligarh, Shakuntala Bharti admitted that she went to the police station after coming to know that cops were not filing an FIR in this connection.

The Mayor added she had come to know that people from Muslim community were visiting Mainath village for the past six months and asking Hindus to convert. She further claimed that Muslim religious leaders were preaching Islam in the village as the village did not have any Muslim house.