Gujarat govt opposes in HC plea to quash FIR filed under anti-conversion law

  • | Monday | 20th September, 2021

Ahmedabad, Sep 20 (PTI) The Gujarat government on Monday opposed in the High Court a petition seeking quashing of an FIR lodged on a complaint of a woman who claimed her husband was wrongly framed by the police under the state"s newly-amended anti-conversion law even when the matter related to a domestic dispute.Public Prosecutor Mitesh Amin said the government has submitted an affidavit before the Gujarat HC opposing the quashing of the FIR in the first case filed under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, which came into force on June 15.The government has said in the affidavit that the FIR lodged by the Gorti police in Vadodara contains the same details that the petitioner had given to the doctor who had examined her, he said.Further, the statement made by the petitioner before the magistrate also contained details that are there in the FIR lodged on the basis of her complaint, Amin said.The affidavit was submitted before Justice Ilesh J Vora on Monday, he said.The HC had during the previous hearing asked the government to file an affidavit if it sought to oppose the quashing of the FIR in which the woman petitioner had said her complaint before the Gotri police was nothing more than a "petty and trivial domestic matrimonial issue," which has been amicably resolved.She had told the court that the angle of "love jihad" was added to the FIR by "certain religio-political groups" looking to "communalise" the issue.She had approached the HC along with her accused husband, in-laws and the priest who solemnised the marriage seeking quashing of the first FIR lodged in the state under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act.The accused have also been booked under sections of the IPC pertaining to domestic violence and provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as the victim belongs to the Dalit community."Although the informant did not complain/inform if the offences were alleged under the IPC, Freedom of Religion Act and Atrocities Act, the same have been incorporated in the FIR as if the informant complained/ informed about the same," the woman said in her petition.The marriage of the inter-faith couple was conducted as per the Special Marriage Act, 1954, and their family members knew each other and their religion and social status, they stated in the plea before the court.Subsequently, over some petty matrimonial issue between the husband and the wife, the woman left her in-laws" home and went to her parental house, the plea added.The Act penalises forcible or fraudulent religious conversion through marriage. PTI KA RSY RSY


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