On 2nd November, a 45-year-old former Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) member was taken into custody in Coimbatore on suspicion of trying to convert a mother and her daughter to Islam. He is also accused of hurting religious sentiments. 42-year-old D Sathyamoorthy, a resident of Kollampalayam in the Erode district, filed a complaint a day earlier with Thudiyalur police, leading to the arrest of Hasan Badhusha, a former SDPI worker from Thudiyalur, Tamil Nadu. SDPI is the political wing of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) which wants to perpetrate terrorist attacks throughout the country and turn it into an Islamic state by 2047.
Sathyamoorthy charged that Hasan and Sathyamoorthy’s wife, M Arthi, had been friends since they were young. Arthi worked at an IT company and Hasan frequently visited her house. Hasan is the owner of a store at Thudiyalur. He had promised to marry Arthi in exchange for a Rs 2 lakh loan to operate his business. “Hasan made several malicious remarks about me to Arthi. He belittled my religion and sowed hatred towards it in my wife,” Sathyamoorthy mentioned in the complaint.
Arthi and her 14-year-old daughter were given a Quran by Hasan to read in an attempt to convert them to Islam. Arthi and her husband were at odds as a result of this. On 1st June of this year, Sathyamoorthy and his family relocated to Kollampalayam in Erode after which he was attacked by Hasan Badhusha on 8th June when the couple arrived in the Thudiyalur neighbourhood of Coimbatore. He directed Arthi to divorce Sathyamurthy since he was prepared to wed her and also made disparaging statements about Hinduism.
A case was submitted and sections 294 (obscene acts and songs), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 153 (wantonly giving provocation, with intent to cause riot), 298 (uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings), and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code were invoked against the culprit, on the basis of the complaint. Afterwards, he was apprehended by the authorities and placed under judicial custody. Meanwhile, SDPI alleged that Hasan was not part of it any longer and was relieved of all duties and party membership at least six months ago, according to an official statement.
