A district court in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, has convicted three individuals, including the mother of a minor Jain boy, for the illegal religious conversion of the child. The court sentenced them to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹5,000 each.

Additional Sessions Judge Jitendra Singh Kushwaha found Prarthana Shivhare (27), her partner Iliyas Ahmed Qureshi (33), and Mohammad Zafar Ali (37) guilty under multiple provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Ordinance, 2020.

The case originated from a complaint filed by Mahesh Kumar Nahata, who alleged that his wife, Prarthana, had unlawfully taken their son and converted him to Islam. Nahata, who married Prarthana in 2014 under Hindu customs, claimed that she left him in 2018 and started living with Qureshi.

He further alleged that Qureshi forcibly circumcised the child, changed his name in school records, and influenced both mother and son to adopt Islamic practices.

For years, Nahata struggled to locate his son, eventually receiving information that Qureshi was residing with Prarthana and the child in Khajrana. The investigation revealed that another accused, Mohammad Zafar Ali, had forged the minor’s Aadhaar card and birth certificate to facilitate the conversion and enrollment in school.

The court determined that the accused had conspired to forge official documents and engage in illegal religious conversion. It noted that the forgery of government-issued identity documents constituted fraud against the Government of India and the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Based on the evidence, the court found all three accused guilty under Sections 420, 467, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code, along with Section 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Ordinance, 2020.

With this ruling, the court reaffirmed the legal provisions safeguarding religious identity and penalizing fraudulent conversions through coercion or misrepresentation.