The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday said that there is no evidence against the accused Nadeem of having any illicit relation with a Hindu woman nor is there any proof that he tried to change her faith. The government in its affidavit to the Allahabad High Court said the provisions of the state’s anti-conversion law, UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020, need not have been invoked against him.
The court was hearing the petition filed by Nadeem for quashing the FIR registered under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020. Akshay Kumar Tyagi, the complainant, who works in a prominent pharmaceutical company as a labour contractor lodged FIR against Nadeem and his brother Salman on November 29, 2020 in western Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, two days after the UP ordinance was passed.
Tyagi also claimed in the FIR that Nadeem used to visit his house in Muzaffarnagar and had trapped his wife Parul in a web of love to try and convert her. The accused were first in Uttar Pradesh to be charged under the new law against forced conversions.
Nadeem’s lawyer Syed Farman Ahmad Naqvi has said the state gave an affidavit that said naming them in the FIR under the anti-conversion law was found to be false and nothing was found in the investigation that he tried to forcibly convert the woman for marriage.
Earlier, the Court had ordered the UP Police not to take any coercive action against Nadeem and granted him protection from arrest until the next date of hearing. The High Court will next hear the case on January 15 and ordered the extension of police protection to Nadeem.