Despite the anti-conversion law being in place, forced religious conversion is still rampant in the state of Uttarakhand. In yet another case that has come to the fore, a scrap dealer named Hashim has been accused of converting a married Hindu woman and her three minor children to Islam. The matter is related to the Nehru Colony police station area in Uttrakhand’s capital city, Dehradun.
According to reports, Hasim not only duped the woman and her children into accepting Islam by luring her with a job, but he also sent the three minor children to a Madarsa following the conversion. After the incident came to light, the Dehradun police began an investigation into the matter by filing an FIR against Hashim.
The matter came to the fore after an old woman approached the police with a complaint against Hashim. She stated in her complaint that her daughter married a man named Sonu Verma in Dehradun roughly 9 years ago. Thereafter, they became parents of three children. The children are currently aged 8, 6, and 3 years.
The victim’s mother further said that a few years later, her daughter and son-in-law started quarrelling over petty issues, because of which her daughter moved in with her.
In her complaint, the woman further stated that Hashim used to frequent her home in Nehru Colony, where he got acquainted with her daughter and her three children. Hashim started getting irked whenever Sonu Verma visited the house to meet his children. He use to beat up the complainant’s daughter whenever he visited the house. One day, Hashim took the victim along with her three children with him under the guise of getting her a job.
The old woman further said that whenever she urged Hashim to let her meet her daughter and grandchildren, he used to give her uncertain responses. When Hashim was pressurised, he informed that the victim’s three children were studying in a madarsa in Chandpur, Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. The complaint said that after Hashim revealed the truth, she immediately rushed to Uttar Pradesh to bring back her grandchildren. When they returned, the three minor children narrated their ordeal to their grandmother. They revealed how Hashim forcefully converted them and sent them to the Madarsa.
It is believed that Hashim and the woman desired to live together, which is why they sent the children to a Madarsa. Meanwhile, the police have opened an investigation into the incident under the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act 2018 and other relevant provisions of the IPC. Hashim, the accused scrap dealer, has been missing since a complaint was filed against him. The police, meanwhile, have assured that the accused would be apprehended soon.