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 her name and religion.

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

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 filed against him by the Hindu woman.

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

The court noted that after he allegedly 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 where his lawyer claimed that he had converted from Islam to Sanatan. Conversion and marriage certificates issued by Arya Samaj Mandir, Lucknow were also produced 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 of the conversion certificate it was also inappropriate.

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

Dismissing the petition, the court granted liberty to the police to investigate the fact whether the petitioner had also committed the offense of preparing his Aadhaar card with false or incomplete information.