A court in Malegaon in the Indian state of Maharashtra has ordered the accused, a muslim, to pray five times a day without any fail for the next 21 days as punishment for beating, brawling, and injuring a man in a street fight.
In his verdict, Magistrate Tejwant Singh Sindhu also asked the 30-year-old accused Rauf Umar Khan to plant two saplings in a nearby mosque as an atonement for his actions and then take care of it.
The magistrate ordered that a district agricultural officer would monitor compliance with the court order and allowed them to use police force if necessary to enforce the order. According to the court order, the accused told the court that he is a poor man and is responsible for the family’s livelihood.
The Probation for Offenders Act allows the court to release the offender after admonition or adequate warning so that the accused does not reoffend.
The court further said that the accused has admitted that he is a devout Muslim and it is obligatory for him to offer prayers, but due to lack of time he is unable to offer prayers. In this context, the magistrate said that it would be appropriate to release them on the condition that they pray five times Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha continuously for 21 days from tomorrow