Nainital: Two weeks after the Uttarakhand Assembly passed the stringent Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2022 on November 30, the first case of alleged forceful conversion was registered in Nainital's Ramnagar on Monday.
A case has been registered against five people following a complaint by a teenage girl alleging rape by Saqib Saifi alias Shiv Thakur at Ramnagar police station of Nainital district, said Sub-inspector Kashmir Singh. In her complaint, the girl alleged that a boy named 'Saifi' befriended her by faking his identity as 'Shiv Thakur' and then raped her adding that latter Saifi also forced her to convert.
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As per sources in 2017, Saifi came in contact with her while she was studying at a college in Ramnagar. The duo had an affair after Saifi allegedly pursued her on social media by using a fake identity. When the girl came to know about Saifi's real identity she broke up with him, over which, Saifi allegedly beat her and put pressurized her to convert.
The girl was to get married to another man on December 3 this year but Saifi allegedly contacted the family of the girl’s husband-to-be and spoke ill of her, resulting in the marriage being called off. Not just Saifi but her sister Saba also threatened her.
Saifi and four of his relatives including Saba, Yunus, Raheela and Ghazala have been booked under sections of the IPC and the Freedom of Religion Act, 2018. Police teams are searching for the accused in the case.
