New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has directed Uttar Pradesh police to produce a man who had been allegedly detained by his father after he converted to Islam and married a Muslim woman.

As The Wire has reported, Shamli police had registered a case against Chandni Qureshi and her father, Islam, under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, after one Ayush Malik had married Qureshi and converted to Islam. The FIR was registered on the complaint of Malik's father Devraj who alleged that his son was lured into a romantic relationship by the woman and subsequently pressured into converting to Islam.

The two were imprisoned for several months.

In June this year, sections of the media had reported that Malik's family had claimed that he voluntarily re-embraced Hindu faith after considering the "distress caused to his parents."

On September 9, however, Justice Sandeep Jain heard a habeas corpus petition filed by Mohammad Sultan, a friend of Malik, The Hindu has reported. Sultan, stressing that Malik's conversion to Islam had been voluntary, said that his father had, in collusion with government authorities, illegally detained Malik and deprived him of his personal liberty.

The high court, according to the report, said that "the purported involvement of the State authorities and their functionaries in facilitating such detention are serious in nature and, therefore, warrant immediate consideration by this court."

It directed Malik’s father and the government authorities to ensure Malik is produced before the court on September 16.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.