New Delhi: In a petition filed by a 29-year-old Hindu woman who had willingly converted her faith to Islam and sought immediate intervention to protect her from undue harassment and intimidation from "vigilante groups", media and the Uttar Pradesh Police, the Delhi High Court has directed adequate police protection from any such actions to the woman and asked them to take adequate steps to protect her life and liberty.
A vacation bench of Justice C Hari Shankar gave the ruling while hearing the plea by the woman, one Ayesha Alvi (earlier Renu Gangwar), who sought immediate protection from the threats she and her family back in Uttar Pradesh were facing from the authorities and organisations. The bench, however, didn't delve into the merits of the case and only provided interim protection to the petitioner given that she had an apprehension regarding her safety and security.
"This is a matter which appropriately should be taken by the regular bench as per the roster, given the nature of the averments in the petition," the bench said, adding that, "it is made clear that this vacation bench is not expressing any opinion one way or the other regarding the correctness of the said averments".
While making these observations, Justice Shankar posted the hearing in the matter to next week before the regular bench for appropriate adjudication.
During the course of the hearing, Advocate Sameer Vashisht, on behalf of police, submitted that the address given by the woman and her phone number were untraceable and hence police was not able to locate her and provide her ample protection as per her needs.
On this, Advocate Tanya Agarwal, on behalf of the woman, told the court that since the petitioner apprehended a threat to her and her family's life, she had to repeatedly change her address and she will now give the appropriate information to police officers as per their requirements.
In her plea, the woman has claimed that she and her family were facing extreme threat to their life and they were allegedly being witch hunted by the officials of the Uttar Pradesh Police and by the media channels and "vigilante groups".
The woman, originally hailing from UP, sought protection to her and her family's safety and right to privacy as owing to her conversion of religion, she and her family were being "targeted" and "malicious contents" about her were being published in the press.
She claimed that media personnel barged into her UP house, invaded her privacy by clicking pictures, extorted money from her and then published false and sensational news items in their publications. She also alleged that her father was being threatened to force her to reconvert.
Significantly, the conversion certificate attached by Alvi in her plea, shows that her conversion was overseen by one Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam, who is one of the two Delhi men arrested by the UP Police for purportedly running an alleged conversion racket.
On June 24, the woman had also written to the Delhi Police Commissioner seeking immediate protection from the threats and intimidation but did not get a suitable response due to which the High Court was moved.