The court orders release of accused and said state was free to take action against the involved officers
LUCKNOW – The Allahabad High Court has slapped a fine of ₹75,000 on the Uttar Pradesh government after the state police falsely accused five Muslims of converting a Hindu woman to Islam.
The court quashed the police complaint, calling it a glaring example of the state authorities falling and scrambling over each other to score brownie points from their superiors.
A division bench of Justices Abdul Moin and Babita Rani issued the order while hearing a petition filed by Umed alias Ubaid Khan and others, seeking to quash an FIR registered against them in Bahraich district under Section 140 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which pertains to kidnapping for murder.
The order was passed by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on October 30.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government was directed to pay 50,000 rupees to the first accused, who was arrested on September 18 and detained for more than 45 days, and to deposit another 25,000 rupees with the court’s Legal Aid Services, which provides free legal assistance to the poor.
Although five people were named in the case, only the main accused was detained. The five were accused of luring a Hindu housewife to convert to Islam as part of an alleged conversion racket.
The court noted that the alleged victim had told police she had not changed her religion, yet officers registered the case and added charges of abduction and theft.
The court ordered the detainee’s release and said the government is free to take action against the officials responsible for the false case.
According to court documents, the woman had left her home voluntarily after facing harassment and physical abuse from her husband, Pankaj Kumar.
Church leaders in the state welcomed the judgment, saying it could set a precedent for dismissing false cases under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 — widely referred to as the anti-conversion law.
Pastor Joy Mathew, who assists Christian victims of such cases, said that some 400 totally false complaints have been filed against Christians since the law came into force, a report in the Union of Catholic Asian News said on Wednesday.
This case shows how police and other authorities collaborate in targeting religious minorities, misusing the draconian anti-conversion law, he said.
He added that members of Hindu groups frequently lodge police complaints against Christians attending Sunday worship, house prayer meetings, or even birthday gatherings.
Police accept these complaints without even a preliminary probe and often arrest and detain the accused, Pastor Mathew was quoted as saying.
Uttar Pradesh has become a hotspot of Christian persecution, the report said. The United Christian Forum, a New Delhi–based ecumenical body, recorded 209 attacks against Christians in the state in 2024 — the highest among 834 incidents nationwide.
Christians make up less than one percent of Uttar Pradesh’s 200 million people, the majority of whom are Hindus.
