Arif Ahmad, who has been arrested on the complaint of an RSS activist in Bijnor with the allegation of Love Jihad, alleging that he was luring a Hindu woman with the aim of converting her, gained bail from the Allahabad High Court in cases charged against him, including rape and cheating.
The same court had last month refused to quash an FIR against his brother Afaq Ahmad over a WhatsApp message in which he had expressed concerns about his brother Arif being mob-attacked, which the court viewed as having the potential to promote religious enmity through subtle and unsaid words.
The single-judge bench of Justice Gautam Chowdhary granted relief to Arif after examining the evidence placed before the court and considering the submissions of his counsel, Advocate Gopal Misra, who argued that Arif had been ensnared in a conspiracy driven by enmity and that the material on record contained inconsistencies between the initial FIR and the subsequent statements of the woman, while also pointing out that the woman had not alleged any offence against Arif in her later account.
Misra further relied on a love letter said to have been written by the woman, which he claimed reflected her voluntary involvement in the relationship, and he contended that her family was compelling her to put forth statements adverse to Arif, thereby weakening the assertion of coercion.
The court, after assessing the nature of the evidence and the absence of contradictory material capable of undermining the bail plea, concluded that the available record was unlikely to be tampered with and that Arif could therefore be released on a personal bond, provided he adheres to conditions restraining him from influencing witnesses or interfering with the trial process, and requiring him to cooperate fully with the proceedings.
Arif had been arrested on 20 July following an FIR lodged by RSS worker Sandeep Kaushik, who accused him of attempting unlawful religious conversion under the claim of Love Jihad, and the case was subsequently expanded to include offences under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita along with sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act.
The bail order for Arif follows the earlier controversy involving his brother Afaq Ahmad, who had circulated WhatsApp messages after the arrest and stated that Arif had been framed and that he feared mob hostility, whereupon an FIR was filed against him, and the high court observed that such subtle and unsaid words could imply an implicit narrative capable of fuelling potential communal enmity.