The CBI has initiated a preliminary enquiry into an alleged case of forced conversion in West Bengal's Malda district on the direction from the Calcutta High Court last year, officials said. The agency has registered the preliminary enquiry, the first step before registering an FIR to prima facie detect criminality in the allegations, to probe the forced conversion of two brothers for allegedly supporting a rival political party during the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.

Wives of these brothers had approached the High Court claiming that their husbands, residents of Kaliachak area of Malda district, were converted from Hinduism to Islam by force as part of a punishment for working for a political party which lost the assembly polls.

The petitioners, who are also sisters, submitted that their husbands were missing since November 24, 2021 and the police did not take any step in tracing the men.

The state government, however, submitted that the two had converted to Islam voluntarily and left home because of a family dispute.

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