National Shooter Forced Religious Conversion Case: CBI Court Awards Life Imprisonment To Tara Shahdeo's Former Husband Raqibul Hassan

A CBI court on Thursday (5 October) announced the quantum of punishment for the three main accused in the national shooter Tara Sahdeo force religious conversion case, including her former husband and mother-in-law.

The court of special CBI judge Prabhat Kumar Sharma had earlier last week held the trio - Shahdeo's husband Ranjit Kohli alias Raqibul Hasan, his mother Kaushar Rani and Mustaq Ahmed - guilty in the case and has set 5 October as the next date for announcing the quantum of sentence.

The CBI court today (5 October) sentenced Raqibul aka Ranjit Kohli to life imprisonment. His mother Kausar Rani was awarded ten years imprisonment, news agency ANI reported.

Further, the court also sentenced Mustaque Ahmed, the then registrar of the High Court, who is accused of conspiring, to 15 years imprisonment.

Speaking to media after the verdict, Shahdeo thanked the court and the CBI for serving her justice.

"This justice is not just for me, every daughter in the country will gain trust that whoever does this to them will be punished. People who do this would be afraid to not treat someone like this... When my fight started, it was labelled as domestic violence. But my efforts were that this should not happen with any girl. People were hesitant to speak that word. After this judgement, they would come up against it openly..." Shahdeo was quoted as saying by ANI.

Shahdeo had said in her complaint that she had married Ranjit Kohli alias Raqibul Hasan as per Hindu rituals on 7 July 2014 but just after second day of her marriage her husband and Ahmed, who was at that time serving as registrar of vigilance, had started forcing her to change her religion and go through a Nikaah.

The CBI had taken over the investigation in 2015 and registered a case in Delhi. The agency later in 2017 filed a chargesheet in the case.

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 of torturing for refusing to convert to Islam.