Delhi High Court orders man accused of forceful religious conversion of woman to delete his social media posts about her

A man accused of forceful religious conversion of a woman was ordered by the Delhi High Court on Wednesday to delete all social media posts and images he made about the woman..Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the order while hearing the petition filed by the accused Azmat Ali Khan seeking removal of videos and news reports carried by news outlets and media organisations against him.The Court had, during the last hearing, ordered the news platforms to remove those videos/reports against the accused. .The complainant woman appeared before the Court today and stated that Khan has her phone and had posted some videos of her on social media platforms.Justice Singh interacted with the woman in chamber and said that she appeared to be traumatised.The Court then asked Khan’s counsel, Rajiv Bajaj, to advise his client to remove the posts.“She has a number of allegations against your client. You will have to co-operate in the investigation. The issue is your client seems to have posted videos on Instagram and she has photographs 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 said..Bajaj assured the Court that the posts will be removed..The Court further said that as far as allegations about Khan keeping the complainant’s phone are concerned, the woman can approach the Sessions Court for appropriate relief.Meanwhile, social media platforms like Google and Twitter told the Court that they have complied with the take down orders.As the judge was about to take up the next case, Khan’s sister addressed the Bench and said that her brother and the woman had been in a relationship for years and it was only when he wanted to break-up did the woman threaten to level the allegations of religious conversion.After hearing her, Justice Singh remarked that there appeared to be a lot of frustration between the two sides and therefore, she would keep the matter pending before the High Court. .The matter will now be considered on August 29..During the previous hearing on May 12, the Court had taken serious objection to news reports, particularly by Sudarshan News, using the words like 'Jihadi' against the accused-man. It had ordered the news platforms and social media intermediaries to take down those videos and reports. It is Khan's case that he and the complainant woman were in a romantic relationship for nearly seven years. However, she has now alleged that he tried to convert her to Islam.On these allegations, the Delhi Police registered an FIR against him but the trial court has protected him from arrest.