October 06, 2023
A Special CBI court in Ranchi has sentenced Raqibul Hassan, the ex-husband of renowned shooter Tara Shahdeo to life imprisonment in a high-profile case of love jihad that has captured the nation’s attention. The court also awarded 10 years of imprisonment to his mother Kaushar Begum. The former registrar (Vigilance) of the High Court Mustaque Ahmed, accused of conspiring, has also been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Apart from this, the court has also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them.
The case began in 2014 when Tara Shahdeo married a man named Ranjit Kohli, but later she found that her husband hide his religious identity and he is actually Raqibul Hasan who posed as Ranjit Kohli. She had marriage as per Hindu rituals on July 7, 2014, but after the very second day of her marriage, her husband and Mustaque Ahmed (who was at that time serving as registrar of vigilance) had started forcing her to change her religion and go through a Nikaah.
Tara’s allegations sparked a nationwide debate on the sensitive topics of love jihad and religious conversions. As Tara is a national-level shooter and a Hindu by birth. The CBI had taken over the investigation in 2015 and registered a case in Delhi.
Shahdeo was granted a divorce by a family court in Ranchi in June 2018 on grounds of cruelty. She had petitioned to the court that Hasan had provided false information regarding his religion and tricked her into marriage. She had also accused Hasan and his family of torturing her for refusing to convert to Islam.
Shahdeo also said that when she was forced to undergo nikah on July 8, Ahmed was present along with Muslim clerics and a ‘kazi’. The allegations had caused a national stir with the Union Home Ministry seeking a report on the purported case of ‘love jihad’, a term coined by certain Hindu groups to describe sham marriages solemnised by people of minority communities to effect forceful conversions into Islam.
Later, the CBI, in its charge sheet also said that Shahdeo was repeatedly raped by her husband and Ahmed molested her. The charge sheet was filed against Ahmed, Ranjeet Singh Kohli and his mother Kaushal Rani (Kaushar Begum), upholding Shahdeo’s allegations of deceit, exploitation and torture. During the course of hearing, a total of 26 witnesses were presented by the CBI, on the basis of which the court convicted Ranjit Kohli, Mushtaq Ahmed and Kaushal Rani.
Tara Shahdeo’s legal battle was a protracted and challenging one, marked by numerous twists and turns. The prosecution argued that Tara had been manipulated and coerced into conversion. The court heard extensive testimonies from both parties.
And now, after 9 years in 2023, CBI court sentenced life imprisonment to culprit Raqibul Hasan, 10 years imprisonment to Kushar & 15 years imprisonment to Mustaque Ahmad.
Legal experts believe that this judgment sets a precedent for cases involving allegations of love jihad and religious conversion. The verdict has sparked discussions across the nation about the need for stricter laws against love jihad, to prevent forced conversions and to protect the rights of hindu girls.