Fake Conversion Case | 'Matter Worrying For Civilised Society': UP Court Acquits Accused, Orders Action Against Cops, Complainant

“The presented case is worrying for the civilized society. Any person can initiate criminal proceedings against any person by registering an FIR to satisfy his vested interest. In the name of investigation, the police can show arrests at any time and can show recovery of anything, even a Rs 100 note,” a Court in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district remarked recently while acquitting two men accused of forcibly converting people to Christianity. The Court also noted that the accused, Abhishek Gupta, not only lost his job but also suffered financial and social loss, and the second accused (Kundan Lal) was arrested on the alleged disclosure of accused Gupta, which makes it apparent that the police were acting under some pressure. “It is clear that the police acted under some pressure on the complaints made by persons like the complainant for publicity purposes. In an unsuccessful attempt to give a legal shape to the baseless and fabricated and imaginary story, the action was taken. Due to this, valuable time, labor and money of not only the police but also the court was wasted,” the Court observed. Additional Sessions Judge Gyanendra Tripathi also directed the Senior Superintendent of Police, Bareilly, to take appropriate legal action against the complainant (one Himanshu Patel) and key witnesses [Arvind Kumar, Devendra Singh, and Ravindra Kumar] along with the former Police Station Incharge, the investigating officer and the jurisdictional officer who approved the charge sheet. The Court directed such action to “prevent such blatantly fraudulent proceedings in the future and ensure the protection of law-abiding citizens”. The Court underscored that in this entire case, the Complainant, the witnesses of the facts, the police personnel, including the police station head who directed for the FIR, the investigator and the jurisdictional officer who approved the charge sheet “are the real culprits”, whose collective efforts caused “irreparable harm” to the two persons/accused. The Court also ordered a copy of the Judgment to be sent to the Principal Secretary (Home), Government of Uttar Pradesh, for further necessary action.The case in brief The Court was essentially dealing with the case of two men [Abhishek Gupta and Kundan Lal] who were booked under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 on the allegation that they were involved in the conversion of people to Christianity. It was alleged in the FIR, lodged at the instance of one Himanshu Patel, that Gupta, along with his entire team of 8 people, was running a program of religious conversion. It was further stated that on receiving information about this, 10-15 workers of a Hindu organisation, along with the police station, reached the spot and found people of the Hindu religion being lured by Gupta to convert to Christianity. It was also alleged that prayer meetings were being held inside a house with locked doors. When the police team reached the house, around 40 people were found inside, eight of whom were carrying copies of the Bible, and all were engaged in prayer to Jesus Christ. During the trial, the Court found that crucial aspects of the investigation, such as the complaint, arrests, recovery, and the location of the incident, were highly questionable. As a result, the Court said, neither the occurrence of the alleged crime nor the involvement of the accused could be established by the prosecution. “…there is no evidence of the alleged action taken by the police at the alleged incident site. No person was arrested from the spot who was instigating religious conversion or making efforts in that regard. Apart from this, during the investigation, no person was examined by the investigator who was motivated to convert to religion or any effort was made in that regard. As per the prosecution version, no holy scriptures like Bible, book etc. were recovered from the spot”, the Court remarked. The Court also found that the complainant (Himanshu Patel) had no locus to file a complaint before the Police. The Court also opined that it was the responsibility of the then Police Station Head to check whether the complainant was legally authorised to file the complaint before registering the FIR. The Court observed that, per the prosecution's case, a copy of the Holy Bible was not recovered from the alleged place of the crime; instead, the complainant provided the same to the cops. However, the Court emphasised that the investigator did not try to find out from the complainant where he had got the book. The Court also noted that the arrest of accused Gupta was shown on 07.10.2022, and a note of Rs 100 was recovered from his pocket; however, “in the entire investigation, no attempt was made to find out what was the source of information of the complainant.” Given this, the Court acquitted the accused.

Fake Conversion Case | 'Matter Worrying For Civilised Society': UP Court Acquits Accused, Orders Action Against Cops, Complainant

Sparsh Upadhyay

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