BELAGAVI, 22 APRIL

A couple was arrested after a 28-year-old married woman accused them of allegedly forcing her to convert to Islam by threatening to circulate her private photographs, police said on Monday.

The victim also alleged that she was raped by the man, Rafik, in front of his wife on several occasions when she was staying with them at a rented house since 2021, police said.

According to the police, the woman also alleged in her complaint that this month, the couple forced her to wear a burqa instead of "kumkum" and also forced her to perform namaaz five times a day. Rafik also threatened to circulate her intimate pictures to her family members and others if she did not divorce her husband, convert to Islam and live with them, she said in the complaint.

The victim got married in 2013 and has two children. In 2020, she met Rafik at her husband's grocery store which he visited frequently and later befriended her. They also got involved in a physical relationship, which her husband got to know later. This led to a quarrel and she left her husband's house, a senior police officer said.

After a gap of about two months, she returned to her husband's house on the condition that she would end her relationship with Rafik, but when she conveyed that to him, he started threatening her with her private pictures, he said.

The woman continued to stay in touch with Rafik but when her husband got to know about it, they had a quarrel and she left her husband's house and began staying with the accused and his wife, the officer added.

The victim has been staying with the couple since 2021 and she alleged that the accused raped her multiple times in front of his wife, the officer said. "Based on her complaint, we have registered a case under sections 376 (Rape), 503 (Criminal Intimidation) of Indian Penal Code, Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, IT Act, SC and ST Act and other sections against seven people," he said. —PTI