Bharuch religion conversion case: Gujarat HC denies anticipatory bail to accused Maulvi

Gandhinagar, April 5: The Gujarat High Court rejected the anticipatory bail application filed by a maulvi from Surat district who is one of the accused in connection with mass forced religious conversion of tribal people in Amod town of Bharuch district.

 

 

 

The bail application of Maulvi was filed by a resident of Palsana in Surat district, Abdul Vahab Varyava (36). He had approached the high court after a district court denied him anticipatory bail in a case in which charges under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, the Atrocities Act, criminal conspiracy, and causing disharmony have been invoked.

 

Four people and one Maulavi from Pursa village in Bharuch were been detained on allegations of converting a Hindu man to Islam by coercion. Notably, Pursa village is very near to the Kankaria village in Amod Taluka where in November 2021 an FIR was registered over forced religious conversion of 100 Hindus from tribal Vasava community.

 

 

The 5 accused in Pursa case are are Anvarkha Ibrahim Pathan, Gemalsang Bharatsang Singha, Imran Nurbha Malek, and Jahangir Gulam Sardar Malek. They threatened a Hindu man named Chhagan Rayaji Parmar about 12 to 15 years ago, telling him he had to convert to Islam or leave the village. They converted him to Islam and called him Abdul Rehman Parmar with the help of a Maulavi from Bholav named Maulvi Abdul Rahim Hafeji Napavala.

 

One of the offenders, Anvarkha Pathan, presented an affidavit providing the victim a plot, while Imran Nurbhai Malek made an affidavit promising to undertake the construction of a residential structure.

 

 

The FIR was registered by one Pravin Vasava, who alleged that he was converted into Islam in 2018 by several accused and was given a new name, Salman Vasant Patel. During investigation into Vasava’s complaint, police found that members of 37 tribal families were converted. Mass religious conversions to Islam were recently reported in Bharuch, Gujarat where Muslims forcefully converted several people from tribal communities to Islam.

 

In November 2021, an FIR was filed against Fefdawala Haji Abdullah, Salahuddin Sheikh, and others on complaint of Pravin Vasava of Kankariya village alleging that religious conversion of people from the Vasava community to Islam was carried out by luring them with financial gains such as a job, a house, and a prospective girl for marriage. The FIR detailed how donations from other countries were transferred to India to aid in the operations of the aforementioned religious conversion.