No kidnapping, no conversion, went on my own to Karnataka, says Gorakhpur woman

The woman's father had earlier lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against the youth from Karnataka for allegedly kidnapping his daughter and forcing her to change religion.

Police in Gorakhpur is set to drop the charges of conversion against a 22-year-old Muslim youth from Karnataka and include rape charges after a 19-year-old woman reportedly told a magistrate on Tuesday that the accused raped her on the pretext of marriage.

There are 100,744 prisoners lodged in 72 jails in Uttar Pradesh, including 72,372 undertrial prisoners and 28,372 convicted inmates, as per the February 2020 data of UP Prison Administration and Reform Services. (Representative image/Shutterstock)

Based on this statement police has included the section of rape (IPC 376) and sent the accused to jail.

Earlier in the day, the woman from Gorakhpur told Uttar Pradesh police that she had gone to Karnataka on her own for a job, a police officer said. Her father had earlier lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against the youth for allegedly kidnapping his daughter and forcing her to change religion.

The man and the woman were brought to Gorakhpur from Bijapur in Karnataka on Monday and were later kept separately with NGOs.

"The woman told us that she went to Karnataka to meet the man on her own looking for a job. She denied allegations of kidnapping or forceful conversion by the man," said additional superintendent of police of Gorakhpur Manoj Kumar Awasthi.

He further said the woman was produced before a magistrate to register her statement on Tuesday and that her medical examination report was awaited.

Meanwhile, deputy inspector general of police, Gorakhpur, Jogendra Kumar said, "The woman's father lodged a missing report on January 5 at Chiluatal police station. Fresh charges under Uttar Pradesh’s new anti-conversion ordinance were added after the woman’s call records showed she was in touch with the Karnataka man for over a year. The woman’s father alleged that the man concealed his religious identity to kidnap his daughter.”

“I left my daughter to Sardar Patel Institute of Technology in Gorakhpur (where she studies) on January 4 but she did not return home that night. On January 5, I lodged a missing complaint. Later, I found that my daughter was in touch with the Muslim youth on Facebook since November 2019,” the woman’s father said in his complaint.

Based on the complaint, the Muslim youth from Karnataka was booked under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020, along with charges of kidnapping a woman to compel her for marriage on January 11, said the police officer.