The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed a man named Azmat Ali Khan, accused of forced religious conversion of a woman, to take down all social media posts, including images and videos, that he made about her.
Justice Prathiba M Singh was hearing a petition filed by Khan asking for the removal of news articles and videos that had been posted online by the woman he had been romantically involved with for seven years who later claimed that he had tried to convert her to Islam.
Notably, on May 12, the single-judge bench directed several news channels and social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter to immediately block links to the video accusing Khan of forcibly converting a woman to Islam.
During the hearing, the complainant woman appeared in person and interacted with Justice Singh in her chambers. She stated that Khan has her phone and that he has posted some videos on social media (Instagram) which are not appropriate.
After the interaction with the complainant, Justice Singh said that she appears to be traumatised and asked Khan’s counsel to advise his client to remove all posts related to her.
“She has a number of allegations against your client. You will have to cooperate in the investigation. The issue is your client seems to have posted videos on Instagram and she has photographs (screenshots) to show that her phone is with your client…We have protected you regarding the videos posted against you. Twice over protection has to be given to the woman. Any videos or post that you have put up against her, not a single one should be there. You remove it within 48 hours. Tell your client to take it seriously. You can’t seek protection and not reciprocate it to the woman,” Justice Singh remarked orally.
To this, the counsel assured the court that the posts will be removed.
“As far as the allegations about Khan keeping the complainant woman’s phone are concerned, she can approach the Sessions Court for relief,” the HC said.
The matter will be taken up next on August 29.
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