A court in Surat on Monday acquitted a 51-year-old man, Mohammad Akhtar, arrested in 2021 for allegedly posing as a Hindu to marry a woman and trying to forcefully convert her, giving him the benefit of doubt, reports Indian Express.
In its order, the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate C V Rana, while acquitting Mohammad Akhtar Shaikh, observed that the complainant “failed to prove that the accused was a Muslim, who had posed as a Hindu bearing the name Mukesh Gupta, with a job in the Railways and had hidden the fact that he was married earlier”.
“The case is surrounded by a cloud of suspicion, and this court believes that the accused should get the benefit of doubt. Taking into account the evidence and statements of witnesses on the record, the complainant side had failed to prove the suspicion in court (about the accused being a Muslim pretending to be a Hindu) and the marriage that took place between them should not be considered as unlawful conversion,” the court also said.
Following the order, Shaikh was released from Surat Central Jail. The case concerns a complaint filed at Dindoli police station by 19-year old Pooja Sahu, a resident of Dindoli in Surat, against her husband Shaikh from Limbayat.
Pooja Sahu had alleged that Shaikh, who was from Samastipur in Bihar, had masqueraded as a Hindu man named Mukesh Gupta and married her “in a temple” at Kadodara village, on the outskirts of Surat, in 2019. The marriage was allegedly solemnised under the Hindu Marriage Act. The complaint also said that the couple had a son, who was given a Hindu name.
In August 2021, Sahu claimed that she stumbled upon the Aadhaar card of her husband and found that he was a Muslim. This was followed by frequent quarrels between the couple.
Sahu, in her criminal complaint, had further alleged that while Shaikh at first told her that he was a railway employee, she later found that he runs a paan shop near Udhna railway station in Surat. She claimed that Shaikh had taken cash worth Rs 13.7 lakh from three of her relatives on the pretext of getting them all jobs in the Railways. When he failed to get them jobs, he did not return the money, she also alleged.
Sahu further claimed that Shaikh tried to forcefully convert her to Islam and when she refused, he beat her up and “threatened to kill her”. However, when contacted, Shaikh’s lawyer V S Patil said, “The complainant works in a cell phone company. The two came in contact when Shaikh went to her store to get a connection in 2018… He also helped her get more customers to meet her target.”
“Their friendship turned into an affair and they used to visit the dargah together. She was aware that he was a Muslim. To get married, they mutually agreed to change Shaikh’s name to Mukesh Gupta, so that she could convince her family members for their wedding… They got married at a temple,” he added. “The court found that there was no evidence to show that the accused beat her up and even forced her to follow Muslim rituals,” Patil said. The assistant Public Prosecutor a M Miyatara reportedly said, “We will look into the details of the judgment and then move a higher court.”
Acting on Sahu’s complaint filed on August 11, 2021, the police booked Shaikh under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 494 (marrying again during life time of husband or wife ), 495 (same offence with concealment of former marriage from person with whom subsequent marriage is contracted), 498(a) (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. Moreover, he was also booked under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021.