Updated: December 11, 2020 7:10:20 am
The couple finally tied the knot on Wednesday after the woman’s brother, Shabeela Khatoon, 28, arrived from the Azamgarh district and told police that if she wanted the wedding, the family had no objections.
Police in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, stopped a wedding ceremony on Tuesday and took the couple away after a phone call saying a Muslim was marrying a Hindu woman after converting her, letting them go alone the next day after discovering. that they were both Muslims. . The man, Haider Ali, 39, has reported that police personnel beat him with a leather belt and tortured him for hours at the Kasya police station.
The couple finally tied the knot on Wednesday after the woman’s brother, Shabeela Khatoon, 28, arrived from the Azamgarh district and told police that if she wanted the wedding, the family had no objections.
The Kasya SHO Sanjay Kumar police station blamed the “malefactors” for spreading rumors of “love jihad”, saying that they had let the couple go after realizing that they were both important and of the same religion. Circle Officer (CO) Piyush Kant Rai said they acted promptly as “the atmosphere is tense and the administration is strict on these cases.”
Denying the torture allegations, Kushinagar SP Vinod Kumar Singh said that several senior officers, as well as the Local Intelligence Unit and some “respected locals” had come to the police station after learning of the case. “It was not like they had taken the couple to the police station in secret. Furthermore, the matter was resolved soon … There was no reason to hit anyone. “
Ali, who lost his first wife 10 years ago and works as a barber in Azamgarh, told The Indian Express: “On Tuesday afternoon, Shabeela and I got married. After the ceremony, there was a small party when a police team arrived and said there had been no nikaah. They did not want to hear anything and took us to the police station around 7:30 pm. They let the cleric go there after he changed his statement and said the nikaah was not yet final. “
While Ali’s village watchman, Gurmiya in Kushinagar, Mushtaqeem Ali, admitted to making the call with a tip from some Hindu youth, a local social activist who facilitated the wedding, Arman Khan, claimed that some Hindu members of Yuva Vahini they had “questioned” the couple before the police arrived.
Ali said that at the police station, Shabeela was sent to another room and beaten with a belt. “One of the policemen asked another to skin me… I tried to talk to them… When Shabeela heard me cry, she panicked. The policemen asked her about her family but she was scared. Only around 9pm was I able to convince her to tell the police her brother’s number.
Her family told the police that she was Muslim and sent her a photo of her Aadhaar card and even made a video call. The police staff were polite after that, but they still wouldn’t let us go. They said they would wait for their brother to arrive. They kept me on the terrace in the cold, ”he said. Kushinagar is about 130 km from Azamgarh.
SHO Kumar said they let Ali and Shabeela go after she said in her brother’s presence that she did not want to go with his family and that she would marry Ali. “Her brother said that if she wanted to get married, they had no objection.”
Arman Khan said that Ali had approached him a week ago seeking help in marrying Shabeela. Khan was taken to the police station on Tuesday along with the clergyman leading the ceremony. Ali said he and Shabeela had known each other for “a long time,” and that about a week ago, she had run away from her home in Azamgarh and moved into her rented room.
Kasya CO Rai said they had confirmed that her family had filed a missing person report at Mubarakpur Police Station in Azamgarh after she left home on December 4. years. On Tuesday, we received a call at the Kasya police station that a Muslim man was going to marry a Hindu woman … The information was provided by some villagers in the village who said they had heard that a ‘love jihad’ marriage was going to take place. “
Rai admitted that after the police stopped the wedding ceremony and brought them to the police station, Shabeela had told them that “she is Muslim and is getting married according to her will.” On whether they would take action against those who had spread the ‘love jihad’ rumor, the CO said a piece of information could be wrong but did not amount to criminal charges.
Mushtaqeem said that after some Hindu locals approached him to tell him that a ‘love jihad’ wedding was taking place, he considered it his duty to pass the information on to the police.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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