Muslim man moves Gujarat HC after waiting for three months on complaint of daughter’s ‘forced conversion’

The Gujarat High Court has sought more information from the authorities after a man had filed a petition claiming that the police had not registered an FIR on his complaint under the recently amended Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act. Petitioner Mohammad Sayyed alleged that the police of Anand district is yet to register a case on his three-month-old complaint that his daughter was abducted and forcibly converted to Hinduism after marriage.

Justice Ilesh J Vora on Friday directed the Assistant Public Prosecutor to obtain directions from the police in respect of the complaint filed by the petitioner with the Superintendent of Police, Anand on June 24, 2021. The HC posted the matter for further hearing on October 27. The petitioner said that her daughter went missing on June 16, 2021, and she later learned that a man had lured her into marriage and “forcibly changed her religion”.

He approached the Khambhat police station with a criminal complaint seeking registration of an FIR against the person under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, which came into force on June 15. But the police only made an entry in the station diary and no FIR was registered. Syed alleged that the police should be directed to register a case.