AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court has sought more information from the authorities after a man filed a petition claiming that police did not register FIR on his complaint under the recently amended Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act.
Mohammad Saiyed, the petitioner, alleged that police in Anand district have not yet registered a case on his three-month-old complaint that his daughter was abducted and forcibly converted to Hinduism after marriage.
Justice Ilesh J Vora on Friday directed the Assistant Public Prosecutor to get instructions from the police regarding the complaint dated June 24, 2021, filed by the petitioner with the Superintendent of Police, Anand.
The HC kept the matter for further hearing on October 27.
The petitioner said his daughter went missing on June 16, 2021, and he later learnt that a man had lured her into marriage and "forcibly converted her religion".
He approached Khambhat police station with a criminal complaint seeking registration of FIR against the person under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act that had come into force on June 15.
But the police only made entry in the station diary and no FIR was registered, Saiyed alleged, seeking that police be directed to register a case.
The petition has made both the Superintendent of Police and collector of Anand district respondents.
The Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, which penalises forcible or fraudulent religious conversion through marriage, was notified by the BJP government in the state on June 15.
Notably, the high court has stayed some of its provisions.