Lucknow, May 31 (IANS): The police have arrested a man from Azamgarh, posing as an officer in the Crime Branch of Uttar Pradesh police, under the anti-conversion law for trapping three Hindu women into marriage by concealing his religious identity.

The married Muslim man was arrested on Sunday and investigations revealed that he had seven children from his first marriage to a Muslim woman in Azamgarh.

A woman had lodged a complaint with the Indira Nagar police, alleging that the accused, Abid Hawari, who posed as a police officer Aditya Singh, sexually exploited her and extorted Rs 16 lakh from her.

She also accused him of forcibly realizing rent from her tenants.

Abid was booked under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2021, and also charged with rape, extortion, remarrying during the lifetime of wife, criminal intimidation, and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.

He was arrested from his house in Sushant Golf City.

The complainant told the police that Abid first met her in 2015 while he was looking for a house for rent. He introduced himself as Aditya Singh from the crime branch of UP police. He told her that he was a widower and had a child from his previous marriage.

She alleged that Abid played an emotional card and she fell in love with him.

A couple of months later, Aditya revealed his real identity as Abid Hawari and asked her to marry him as per his religious customs.

She said since Abid had her photographs in a compromising position, she had no choice but to agree to his condition.

Later, she came to know from her acquaintances that Abid had married another woman in Arjunganj on February 21.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP), North Zone, Prachi Singh said that while donning the uniform, the accused not only fleeced women but also ran extortion rackets.

"We have arrested him and will question him to find the details of his criminal past," she said.