Police in Uttar Pradesh state have filed a criminal case against X account of journalist Nikhat Ali and five other social-media users, accusing them of circulating misleading information about an Allahabad High Court hearing involving a Hindu man’s conversion to Islam and a dispute with his family, according to a police First Information Report reviewed by Millat Times.
The case, registered on Sept. 16 at Kotwali Shamli police station, names Ali’s X account, @INikhatAli, along with accounts identified in the FIR as Karishma Aziz, The Muslim, Wasim Akram Tyagi, Syed Kaif Hasan and Nadeem Saifi.
Police have invoked Section 353(2) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, a provision dealing with statements or information alleged to cause public alarm or incite offences against public tranquillity. The FIR says the accused circulated claims that the Allahabad High Court had reprimanded Shamli police during proceedings concerning Ayush Malik.
Ali presently works as anchor reporter at Millat Times self and has previously worked as a reporter for News18 India and is a Zee Media alumna.
The FIR does not itself reproduce the social-media posts attributed to Ali or the other accused. It instead says that information circulated on X and Facebook claimed that the High Court had “reprimanded” Shamli police and alleges that the claim distorted the court proceedings.
The distinction matters because the court did intervene in the case before Malik was produced on Sept. 16. On Sept. 9, Justice Sandeep Jain had directed authorities to produce 31-year-old Ayush Malik before the court after a habeas corpus petition alleged that he was being unlawfully confined by his father following his conversion to Islam and marriage to a Muslim woman.
When Malik appeared before the court on Wednesday, the High Court said he was an adult and free to make decisions about his religion, residence and relationship.
Malik told the court that he had voluntarily embraced Islam and that his decision had not resulted from coercion, undue influence or inducement.
The court’s earlier Sept. 9 order had described allegations concerning Malik’s detention and the involvement of state authorities as serious enough to warrant immediate consideration.
Police, however, say their officers complied with the court’s direction by producing Malik and his father before the bench. The FIR says the High Court did not seek a counter-affidavit or reply from the police and alleges that portraying the proceedings as a judicial reprimand of the police was misleading.
The FIR records the police’s interpretation of the alleged posts; it does not establish that Ali committed the offence.
The underlying dispute began in June, when Malik’s father, Devraj Malik, filed a police complaint alleging that his son had been induced to convert to Islam by Chandni Qureshi and her family in an effort to obtain his property. Police subsequently registered a case against Qureshi, her father and others under the BNS and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act. Qureshi and her father were arrested and later granted bail, according to court and media reports.
Malik’s friend, Sultan Qari, subsequently approached the Allahabad High Court seeking his production and freedom. The court ordered Malik’s production and later disposed of the petition after hearing him.
The police complaint now places a journalist among those facing investigation over online commentary about the proceedings.
No finding of criminal liability against Ali or the other named individuals is contained in the FIR copy.
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