The Central Bureau of Investigation has framed charges against Raqibul Hassan alias Ranjit Kohli for giving false information about his religion while marrying national-level shooter Tara Shahdeo.
Reportedly, the court has also framed charges against four others for allegedly helping Hassan. On Friday, the special CBI judge Ajay Kumar Gudia read out the charges against the accused in their presence.
The other accused against whom charges were framed are Raqibul’s mother Kaushal Rani, former judge Pankaj Srivastav, The CBI has also framed charges against Rajesh Prasad, the then judicial magistrate of Gaya.
The court has fixed August 23 to begin the process of recording statements of witnesses. The CBI has framed charges under IPC 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 212 (harbouring an offender).
The Case
The incident had come to light in August 2014, when Tara left the house of her in-laws and made these shocking charges. In 2014, Tara Sahadeo had claimed that she was pressurised and tortured by her in-laws to accept Islam after she married a person, who she thought was a Hindu. She was barely married for a month before she had to walk out of it to save her dignity and choice of following her religion.
Tara had married another shooting professional named Ranjeet Kumar Kohli on 7 July 2014 in Ranchi. Ranjeet reportedly had been doing well professionally and was well connected with high profile people. Tara had met Ranjeet the same year-earlier during shooting practice. He started courting her and later proposed to her, to which she agreed.
Both were married as per Hindu rituals but Tara says that just a day after the wedding, she came to know that Ranjeet was not a Hindu. His real name was Raqibul Hasan Khan and he was a Muslim. Due to this reason, this incident was reported as a possible case of ‘Love Jihad’ back in 2014.
Reportedly, both Raqibul and his mother used to mentally and physically torture Tara, asking her to accept Islam if she wanted her married life to be normal. She was strictly warned not to apply ‘sindoor’, failing which her hands will be broken. There were dowry demands too from the in-laws, Tara had alleged.
A group of Maulvis were also called a couple of days after their wedding where Tara was asked to convert. Tara had alleged that she was brutally beaten up after she had refused to convert. She was allegedly further threatened that not only her, her family members will also be killed if she opened her mouth.
Tara had decided to break free finally when she used a mobile phone of domestic help to call her brother and asked him to come to her in-laws’ house along with the police. The incident came to public knowledge thereafter.
Later, accused Raqibul Hasan Khan had accepted that he had physically assaulted Tara but denied putting pressure for religion conversion. He was subsequently sent to judicial custody on 27 August and he is lodged in a Ranchi jail ever since. His mother was granted bail later.
CBI charge sheet against Raqibul
In 2017, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against Ranjeet alias Raqibul, his mother Kaushal Rani, and Mushtaq Ahmed, the then Registrar (vigilance) of the Jharkhand High Court, more detail on the case are emerging.
The High Court had asked the CBI to investigate the case and the case was transferred to the central agency in May 2015. CBI now has filed the charge sheet under sections of criminal conspiracy, sexual assault, domestic violence and for fraudulently organising marriage ceremony without lawful marriage.
On June 27, 2018, a Ranchi court had granted Tara Shahdeo divorce from her husband on the ground of false information and the subsequent domestic and physical violence.
