Bengaluru
The Karnataka High Court has canceled the FIR lodged against three Muslim individuals, which were accused of distributing pamphlets promoting the education of Islam in a Hindu temple and explaining their religious beliefs orally. The court has said in its order that in a temple, distributing and interpreting the form of Islam in a temple does not cause any crime, unless there is any evidence related to conversion.
The accused were charged under Section 299, 351 (2) and 3 (5) of the Indian Justice Code, 2023 and Section 5 of the Protection of Freedom Rights Act, 2022. A bench of Justice Venkatesh Naik Tea said during the hearing that the accused have not committed any crime under the above laws, as they did not make any attempt to convert any person to Islam.
Allegations of derogatory remarks on Hinduism also
According to the report of Live Law, the complainant had alleged that on May 4, 2025, at 4:30 pm, when he went to the Ramatirtha temple in Jamkhandi, some people were distributing pamphlets promoting Islamic education in the temple premises and explaining to people about their religious beliefs. The complaint states that the Hindu devotees at the scene had questioned them about their activities, so in response, the Muslim youth had allegedly made derogatory comments criticizing Hinduism.
Job and car were given temptation
The complainant had also alleged that the accused were luring the people present in the temple to give a car in lieu of adopting the religion of Islam and get a job in Dubai. On the other hand, demanding the cancellation of the crime filed against him, the petitioners argued that they were only promoting the teachings of Allah or Prophet Muhammad.
No evidence of conversion
The petitioner’s counsel told the court that the petitioners do not meet the essential elements of the crime punished under Section 5 of the KPRFR Act by the petitioners of trying to convert from one religion to another as no such evidence has been found that proved that they were trying to make all conversions.