RANCHI: In a significant development, a Special CBI court in Ranchi on Thursday pronounced the sentencing for the Tara Shahdeo forced religious conversion case. The court awarded life imprisonment to her ex-husband Raqibul, also known as Ranjeet Singh Kohli, and 10 years to his mother Kaushal Rani. The then registrar of the High Court Mustaque Ahmed, accused of conspiring, has also been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Apart from this, the court has also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them.
The special CBI Court of PK Sharma had convicted them on September 30, after finding them guilty on various charges, took them into judicial custody, and sent them to Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi.
Ranjeet Kohli has been held guilty under section 120 B read with sections 376 (2) (n), 496, 298, 323 and 506 of IPC, Kaushal Rani under section 120B of IPC read with sections Sec. 376 (2) (n), 496, 298, 323, 506 of IPC, while Mushtaq Ahmed has been convicted under sections 120B of IPC read with sections 376(2) (n), 496, 298, 323 and 506 of IPC.
Defense counsel Mokhtar Khan, however, said that they appeal on the Jharkhand High Court against the sentencing.
“Ranjeet Singh Kohli has been sentenced life imprisonment, his mother Kaushal Rani has been awarded jail for 10 years while the Mushtaq Ahmed has been sentenced 15 years of jail under section 120B read with section 376,” said defense counsel Mokhtar Khan.
Maximum punishment has been given for section 376 (2) (N) under which a minimum punishment of 10 years has been given to Kaushal Rani, while Mustaque Ahmed has been sentenced to 15 years and Ranjit Singh Kohli has been awarded life imprisonment under the same section, he added.
Khan said that they have sufficient grounds under which they can move High Court for appeal. National level shooter Tara Shahdeo had married Ranjeet Kumar Kohli, also a shooting professional, on July 7, 2014 in Ranchi. She alleged that keeping her in dark about his religion, Kohli started torturing her from the very next day to get converted into Islam. Finally, she walked out alleging that Ranjeet Kohli was actually Raqibul Hasan, leading to uproar and registration of FIR against him.
According to the FIR lodged by her at Hindpiri Police Station, after escaping from her husband’s Blair Apartments flat on September 19, 2014, the mother-son duo used to torture her after she refused to change her religion. Shahdeo, in a statement recorded before a judicial magistrate, had alleged that the then HC Registrar (Vigilance) Mushtaq Ahmed had arranged her marriage according to Hindu traditions at Hotel Radisson Blu in Ranchi and came to their house the very next day with Muslim clerics to solemnize ‘nikah.’
Shahdeo said that when she was forced to undergo nikah on July 8, Ahmed was present along with Muslim clerics and a ‘kazi’. The allegations had caused a national stir with the Union Home Ministry seeking a report on the purported case of ‘love jihad’, a term coined by certain Hindu groups to describe sham marriages solemnised by people of minority communities to effect forceful conversions into Islam.
Later, the CBI, in its charge sheet also said that Shahdeo was repeatedly raped by her husband and Ahmed molested her. The charge sheet was filed against Ahmed, Ranjeet Singh Kohli and his mother Kaushal Rani (Kaushar Begum), upholding Shahdeo’s allegations of deceit, exploitation and torture. During the course of hearing, a total of 26 witnesses were presented by the CBI, on the basis of which the court convicted Ranjit Kohli, Mushtaq Ahmed and Kaushal Rani.
The four witnesses presented by the defense side could not prove the innocence of the three accused persons in the court. All the three convicted persons were accused of assaulting Tara Shahdeo, torturing her for religious conversion and molesting her as part of a well-planned conspiracy. On June 27, 2018, a family court in Ranchi granted Tara Shahdeo divorce from her husband on the ground of cruelty, false information and the subsequent domestic and physical violence.