Rape case: Allahabad HC denies relief to man accused of concealing name, religion

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has denied relief to a man accused of raping a Hindu woman and then forcing her to marry him while concealing his name and religion.

The court refused to interfere with the FIR lodged against Arif Hussain alias Sonu Singh at this stage when the entire investigation was pending and dismissed his petition.

A division bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Narendra Kumar Johari passed the order recently on a petition filed by Arif Hussain alias Sonu Singh challenging the FIR lodged against him by the Hindu woman.

The accused claimed that he adopted ‘Sanatan Dharma’ 15 years ago while marrying the survivor in an Arya Samaj temple in Lucknow in 2009.

The court noted that after he purportedly converted from Islam to Sanatan in 2009, he applied for Aadhaar card in 2012 in the name of Arif Hussain.

Challenging the FIR, Arif Hussain alias Sonu Singh moved the high court wherein his counsel claimed that he had converted from Islam to Sanatan. Conversion and marriage certificates issued by Arya Samaj Mandir, Lucknow, were also filed to support this claim.

However, the court found both certificates ‘dubious’ as it noted that both contained the same serial number and the age of the parties was not mentioned in the marriage certificate and the wording in the conversion certificate was also improper.

When the court inquired of the counsel as to why the petitioner applied for the Aadhaar card in 2012 as Arif Hussain, no explanation could be given.

Dismissing the petition, the court granted liberty to police to look into the fact as to whether the petitioner had also committed the crime of getting his Aadhaar Card prepared on false/incomplete information.