Torture began 3 yrs ago: Meerut victim

Meerut: The Meerut woman who has claimed she was gang-raped and forced to convert to Islam has told a court that her suffering began three years ago when a 'friend' first tried to convince her to change her religion.

"When I was studying in Class X, a Muslim girl in my neighbourhood befriended me. She used to tell me good things about Islam, that I would get rich if I converted," the 20-year-old reportedly said in her statement to the court.

"Last year, Nishat helped me get a job as a teacher in a madrasa for a monthly pay of Rs 1,500," she added, saying she had begun to believe conversion would help her get wealthy.

If sources are to be believed, the woman also narrated an incident she said occurred last month when she was 'coerced' into wearing a veil by madrasa head Sanaullah and his wife Shabnam, allegedly with the collusion of Nawab Khan, the chief of their village. "That is when they kidnapped me and took me to a madrasa in Hapur town, from where I was taken to yet another madrasa at Datoi in Hapur. There, I was drugged and raped by four persons," she told the court.

The victim's medical examination has confirmed she was gang-raped.

"My physical condition deteriorated on July 28, so they called Sanaullah. He took me to a hospital in Meerut where an ultrasound revealed I was pregnant. They took me to Muzaffarnagar, where I underwent surgery (for abortion)," she revealed.

Meerut DIG K. Satyanarayan said the police was looking into certain "blind spots" in the victim's statement.
"It sounds like she was lured into a conversion with promises of a good life, but rebelled after something went wrong," he added.

Another Meerut in Ghaziabad?

Taking a cue from the controversy surrounding the gang-rape and religious conversion of a 20-year-old woman from Meerut, the parents of a 15-year-old girl in the Loni area of Ghaziabad have registered an FIR against a youth with whom their daughter had eloped.

They told the police that their minor daughter was forcefully converted to Islam and raped.

However, the girl rubbished the claim of her parents and told the police that she would prefer not to leave the youth she had eloped with. She admitted that it was with her consent that she was converted in a mosque in Nizamudddin area of Delhi on June 25, a day after she eloped with Mohammad Rehan (23).

However, a case of rape has been registered against Rehan and he has been sent to jail.