Muslim man held for posing as Hindu to marry woman in UP’s Pratapgarh

A Muslim man, who allegedly married a Hindu woman at a temple here by posing as a Hindu, has been arrested, the police said on Saturday.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), East, Shailendra Lal, said that action was initiated in this case on the intervention of Mangala Prasad, the chief priest of Belha Mai temple.

The chief priest got suspicious after seeing the man and the woman getting married and informed the police, he added.

The ASP said that the chief priest, in his complaint, told police that he asked the name of the couple when some doubt arose.

The woman revealed her name as Shalini Prajapati, a resident of Prayagraj’s Malaka, and the man said that his name was Rajiv, a resident of Malaka, Prayagraj, police said.

The ASP said that when police asked the man for his Aadhaar card, he revealed his name to be Matloob Alam, a resident of the Chandapur Police Station area in Prayagraj district.

When the woman was asked, she said that he was marrying her in the temple with the intention of forcibly converting her religion, police said.

The man was allegedly pressurising the woman to convert her religion by trapping her in his “web of love”, they said.

As soon as the matter came to light, members of Hindu organisations reached the spot and began creating a ruckus.

The ASP said that the police arrested the accused and registered a case under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act and relevant sections related to kidnapping a woman and forcing her to marry.

Uttar Pradesh