Indian court frees Muslim revert confined by Hindu family over Islam

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — An Indian Muslim revert has been set free by a court after spending more than three months confined at his family home following opposition from his Hindu family to his decision to embrace Islam.

Ayush Malik, 31, embraced Islam voluntarily in 2014 and has practiced the faith for about 12 years.

During his confinement, Malik said his family threatened him, forced him to shave his beard and made him perform Hindu rituals on camera and record a declaration that he had renounced Islam and returned to Hinduism.

The Allahabad High Court ordered Malik’s release after hearing him personally, according to legal news website LiveLaw.

Justice Sandeep Jain ruled that an adult was entitled to determine his faith according to his own conscience and that family opposition could not override that choice.

Malik told the court that his conversion was entirely voluntary and involved no coercion, threat, undue influence or inducement.

He said his parents and other relatives had refused to accept his decision to follow Islam and that he had been threatened and kept under house arrest since June 4.

His confinement came amid family opposition to both his Muslim faith and his marriage to Chandni Qureshi.

Earlier court proceedings and reporting identify Qureshi as Malik’s wife and say his father subsequently lodged a police complaint that resulted in a case against her and her relatives under Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law. Qureshi and her father were jailed.

The case highlights tensions surrounding the right to embrace Islam in India, where religious conversion has become increasingly contentious and several states have enacted laws against conversion through force, fraud or inducement.

In Uttar Pradesh, such legislation has also been invoked in cases involving interfaith relationships.

Malik’s friend approached the High Court through a habeas corpus petition, saying Malik was being illegally detained by his father, Devraj Singh Malik, with assistance from state authorities.

On Sept. 9, the court ordered authorities and his father to produce him, describing claims of unlawful confinement and purported state involvement as serious.

When Malik appeared before the judge, his father argued that his son had been influenced or “brainwashed” into Islam and said he opposed his religious choice and marriage out of concern for his welfare.

Malik rejected that claim and reaffirmed that he had independently chosen Islam.

The court found nothing before it to disbelieve him, noting that Malik was an adult capable of making decisions about his own life. It held that his choice of religion could not be displaced simply because his family refused to accept it.

The court also upheld Malik’s autonomy over his marriage, saying an adult’s choice of life partner forms part of the right to life and personal liberty protected under Article 21 of India’s Constitution.

It said parental concern, however understandable, could not override an adult’s constitutional autonomy over faith, residence and choice of partner.

Finding no lawful justification for continuing to restrain Malik, the court set him free, allowing him to live wherever and with whomever he chooses and to profess and practice Islam.

The ruling restores Malik’s liberty after months in which, by his account, pressure to abandon Islam went beyond family disapproval to attempts to publicly portray him as having returned to Hinduism.