Calcutta HC orders CBI, NIA to probe forced religious conversion case in Bengal's Malda
India Today
Two women in Bengal's Malda have filed a special leave petition in Calcutta HC, alleging that their husbands have been forced to convert to Islam.
Two women in West Bengal's Malda have filed a special leave petition in Calcutta HC, alleging forced religious conversion of their husbands.
According to the petition, their husbands went missing on November 24 last year. When the women went to file a complaint at the police station, a civic volunteer tore up the complaint and said that both their husbands had converted to Islam. Subsequently, they lodged a complaint with the superintendent of Malda but he also did not take any action, the women alleged.
Petitioners are sisters and their respective husbands are brothers. Both men worked for a political party that had lost recent Assembly elections. The petitioners filed complaints at Mothabari and Kaliachak Police Stations after their husbands went missing on November 24, 2021.
Meanwhile, counsel for the State MD Galib stated in court that due to family disputes, the husbands of the petitioners have left them and are currently residing in Pratappur, Malda. He said that two men converted to Islam voluntarily. They even refused to return to their homes.
Md Galib also told the court that both men have testified under Section 164 that they voluntarily converted to Islam.
After hearing both the parties, the single bench of justice Rajshekhar Mantha ordered SP, Malda, to extend full support to the CBI and NIA in the case. The court also ordered the agencies to probe allegations of forced religious conversions, counterfeit notes, arms stockpiling and cross-border infiltration, raised by the petitioners.
