PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has dismissed a petition to scrap an FIR against 37 people accused of carrying out mass conversions from Hinduism to Christianity through inducements and fraud in Uttar Pradesh last year, saying it “discloses ingredients of cognisance offence and cannot be quashed”, reports Rajesh Kumar Pandey.
The order related to the alleged incident in Fatehpur came on Friday. The petition was filed by one Jose Prakash George and 36 others against the FIR lodged in Fatehpur on January 23, 2023
The counsel for the petitioners contended that another FIR was lodged earlier with almost identical allegations on April 15, 2022, and, hence, the second on the same issue was not maintainable.
The complainant in the January case is one of the witnesses in the FIR of April 2022 and most accused named in both are the same, the counsel argued. Only the compliant is different in both cases, which allege mass conversions by fraud, coercion and allurement, the counsel added.
But an HC division bench of Justices Anjani Kumar Mishra and Gajendra Kumar observed that the second FIR, though related to the same incident, cannot be quashed as it was lodged by “a competent person”.
The order related to the alleged incident in Fatehpur came on Friday. The petition was filed by one Jose Prakash George and 36 others against the FIR lodged in Fatehpur on January 23, 2023
The counsel for the petitioners contended that another FIR was lodged earlier with almost identical allegations on April 15, 2022, and, hence, the second on the same issue was not maintainable.
The complainant in the January case is one of the witnesses in the FIR of April 2022 and most accused named in both are the same, the counsel argued. Only the compliant is different in both cases, which allege mass conversions by fraud, coercion and allurement, the counsel added.
But an HC division bench of Justices Anjani Kumar Mishra and Gajendra Kumar observed that the second FIR, though related to the same incident, cannot be quashed as it was lodged by “a competent person”.