Shooter Tara Shahdeo’s husband Ranjit Kohli and his mother has been sent to 14-day judicial custody.
Earlier, during interrogation Kohli told police that Tara’s family knew that he offered Namaz daily. He said after solemnising his marriage according to Hindu rites, a Nikah was also performed and that the family knew about that too.
Meanwhile, Kohli has told the police that he was a Hindu till 2007 when he came in touch with a tantric, identified as Arif, who converted him to Islam. Locals in Ranchi, however, knew him by both names.
Police sources said Kohli has registered a firm named Kaushalya Biotech Pvt. Ltd. in Jharkhand to evade any legal hassles but his actual work was liasoning. He was in touch with many politicians and businessmen and this facilitated his entry in the shooting range where he met Tara.
After their marriage, his wife Tara claims that she only came to realise that Kohli belonged to a different when her husband received a card by a Jharkhand Minister who had addressed him as Raqibul Hassan.
Ranjit Kohli told that he has good relations with two Cabinet Ministers of Jharkhand – Minority Welfare Minister Haji Hussain Ansari and City Development Minister Suresh Paswan. While talking to media, Ansari has accepted that he knows Rakibul from past one year. He had also invited Rakibul to his house for a supper, where he (Rakibul) said that he has converted to Islam.
Responding on the complaint by his wife of beating her, Kohli admitted hitting Tara on one occasion. According to sources, he also told the police that he has beaten Tara many times but not for religious conversion but over other disputes like his habit of coming home late at night.
Raqibul said she has also asked for money for her brother and father.
Police have not found any proof of his conversion to Islam so far.
Tara had also alleged that she came to know about her husband’s faith only after her marriage and that she was only able to SMS her family on August 19 and that led to her rescue.