A 39-year-old gym owner in Lucknow has been arrested for marrying a woman by allegedly concealing his identity and posing as a Hindu man, Police said.

He has also been charged with allegedly raping and assaulting the woman.

Chinhat police station In-charge, Tej Bahadur Singh, said the accused identified as Faisal Ahmad, posed as a Hindu and told the woman his name was Atharv Singh.

Later, he married her in a temple to conceal his identity and the woman came to know about it after marriage when he forcibly made her change her religion.

The Police said the accused operated a gym under Gomti Nagar police station limits and he met the woman when she came there for fitness training.

The Police Inspector said the woman accused him of rape and having unnatural sex with her. He said the man assaulted and insulted the woman and threatened her with dire consequences if she told her family members or approached the police.

He added that the accused has been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 for fraud, 376 for rape, 377 for unnatural sex, 323 for voluntarily causing hurt, 504 for insulting and 506 for criminal intimidation.

“Other than slapping certain IPC sections, the sections 3/5(1) of Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act and sections 3/4/5 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, have been invoked against the accused,” he said.

The Religious Conversion Act was meant for prohibition of unlawful conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion and allurement and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act was to prohibit indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)