UP: Woman dies by suicide after being forced to convert to Islam

A 24-year-old man was arrested allegedly for abetting a woman to commit suicide after she refused to convert her religion and marry him, police said on Saturday.

According to police, the accused, Shahrukh, was in a relationship with the victim, also 24, and had given her the option to either convert or kill herself to avoid "social humiliation."

The woman hanged herself from a ceiling hook in her house in Kanpur on Wednesday, Assistant CP (Collectorganj) Tej Bahadur Singh said.

The victim had come in contact with the accused a couple of years ago through a social networking site, where he identified himself as Saurabh, the ACP said.

In the FIR lodged on Friday, the woman's father accused Shahrukh of harassing and forcing his daughter to marry him as per Islamic rituals, the ACP said.

The father claimed that Shahrukh also had his daughter's private photos and videos with which he threatened her to commit to Islam and marry him.

Shahrukh was booked under IPC's section 306 (Abetment of suicide) and sections 3 and 5(I) of UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021, police said.

He was arrested from Bhoosatoli, Harbansh-Mohal on Friday, ACP said, adding, he was produced before a court from where he was sent to jail, the ACP added.