The Allahabad High Court granted bail to 4 individuals last week in the Uttar Pradesh Mass Religious Conversion Racket case who were charged by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) with ‘waging war against India’ through unlawful conversions.

 

The bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Ajai Kumar Srivastava-I granted bail to Dheeraj Govind Rao Jagtap, Kausar Alam, Bhupriya Bando @ Arsalan Mustafa and Adam @ Prasad Rameshwar Kaware by taking note of Apex Court’s orders granting bail to their co-accused Irfan Khan @ Irfan Shaikh (February 2023) and Abdullah Umar (July 2023). Senior Attorney Sanjay Hegde and Attorney Pranjal Kishore defended Abdullah.Significantly, the Court also took into account the observations of the Top Court while granting bail to Abdullah that “having regard to the fact that the charges have been framed, we do not think that the appellant is required to be kept in detention pending trial. The case of the appellants is on similar footing as the charges against the present appellants have also been framed,” the division bench further observed as it allowed their appeals filed under Section 21 (4) of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 challenging Lucknow NIA Court’s order denying bail to them.

 

The prosecution’s allegation against all four defendants is that they engaged in anti-national actions by converting large numbers of people in the State of Uttar Pradesh from the Hindu religion to Islam by publicising Islam and then using that to their advantage to rehabilitate them.

 

A significant amount of money was allegedly raised by them for the purpose of carrying out these actions, which is against the U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, according to the UP ATS, who detained them in 2021. Following that, they were detained under Sections 3/5/8 of the U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, Sections 120-B, 153-A, 153-B, 295A, 417, 298, 121A, and 123 of the I.P.C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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