A 22-year-old woman from Kanpur has sought security following alleged threat to her life for marrying a person belonging to the Muslim community.
The parents of the woman, Shalini Yadav, had lodged a police case against Mohammad Faisal and his family on the charge of kidnapping her and forcibly getting her converted, the woman and the police said.
In an undated video circulated on social media, a woman, who identifies herself as Ms. Yadav, rejects all allegations of forced conversion and claims she married Mr. Faisal and converted to his religion by her own free will “without any force or pressure”.
The police said they would take further action after probing the authenticity of the video, which could not be independently verified.
In the video, the woman says she eloped with Mr. Faisal, a friend of six years, on June 29 under the pretext of appearing for a college examination. Mr. Faisal is seen in the video next to her.
The woman claims she first went to Lucknow and they got married in a court in Ghaziabad on July 2. They perfomed ‘nikaah’ by mutual consent. After knowing about the marriage, her family members tried to persuade her to return home and made it clear to her that her act would not be acceptable to them. She alleges that her father went to Mr. Faisal’s house and threatened his family, saying they wanted her back “dead or alive”.
Ms. Yadav says she came to know of an FIR lodged against Mr. Faisal days after she submitted an application in a local police station that she did not want to go with her parents and had got married on her own free will.
“My life is under threat. I am under threat where I am staying at present. I don’t know what will happen to me tomorrow. I want your help, please get us security”, she states in the video.
Refutes charges
Ms. Yadav dismisses her father’s allegations that Mr. Faisal had kidnapped her at gunpoint (using a country-made weapon) and taken away jewellery worth ₹10 lakh and forcibly got her married to him.
Circle Officer Babupurwa Alok Kumar Singh on Friday said an FIR under IPC Sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) 370, 120b (criminal conspiracy) and 511 had been lodged on the complaint of Satrupa Yadav, the woman's mother, in the Kidwai Nagar police station.
He said that a woman claiming herself to be Ms. Satrupa’s daughter had issued a “viral video” and mentioned about her marriage. “This alleged video is being investigated” and the police were searching different places to recover the couple, he added.
In the video, Ms. Yadav says she did not want to press any charges against anyone and only wanted to live peacefully with Mr. Faisal.
