FIR registered against 7 for forced religious conversion in Karnataka

ANI |
Updated: April 22, 2024 9:00 am IST

Belagavi (Karnataka) (India), April 22 (ANI): An FIR has been filed against a couple and five others for allegedly forcing a 28-year-old woman to convert to Islam by blackmailing her using her private photos , the police said.
The suspect, identified as Rafik, and his wife engaged in sexual activities with her. He then took intimate photos of her, which he used to blackmail her into converting to Islam, police said.
According to police, all three lived together and in 2023 her husband Rafik raped her and demanded her conversion to Islam. He also asked her to wear a burqa instead of ‘kumkum’, according to her complaint.

“In April 2024, they forced the lady to perform namaz five times, wear a burqa and not wear kumkum,” said Superintendent of Police (SP) Belagavi Bheemashankar S. Guled.
The accused, Rafik, asked her to divorce her husband and live with them by converting to Islam; if not, he threatened to make her intimate photos public, police said.
In Saundatti, an FIR was registered against seven people based on the woman’s complaints.
They are charged under the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, relevant sections of the IT Act, the SC/ST Act and the Indian Penal Code, including those for rape, kidnapping, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation, the police said. .
Further research is being conducted. (ANI)