NEW DELHI — A group of men allegedly belonging to right-wing outfit Karni Sena stopped an inter-faith marriage between a Muslim man and a Dalit woman at a local court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district calling it a case of “forced conversion and love jihad”, Indian Express cited Police as saying.
The men then forced the women to go to the police station where the police officer handed her over to her father, until she recorded her statement in the court.
The incident is said to have taken place on Wednesday. A case of abduction has also been registered against 24-year-old Dilshad Siddiqui, the man with whom she was getting married.
“We have lodged a case on a complaint from her father that his daughter had been kidnapped. We will present her in a court soon, where she will record her statement. Further action will be taken based on her statement as the woman is an adult,” Ballia’s Superintendent of Police, Vipin Tadia, was quoted as saying by the news.
Tadia also said that the allegations of illegal conversion were found baseless, adding that the statement of the woman would be recorded soon.
A video that has surfaced on social media shows the woman being heckled by men from Karni Sena, while she claims she is getting married with Siddiqui willingly. One man from the group is heard asking the woman: “What is your name… What caste are you from? Which caste does the boy belong to? Is he Muslim? Why are you getting married to him?”
She replies that she belong to Dalit community and is marrying Siddiqui willingly.
Siddiqui, a resident of Padri village in Ubhaon, was also questioned and threatened, the video shows. He allegedly fled from the court when the men created ruckus there.
Another video shot outside the police station shows a man asking the woman, “How can you do this to your parents who raised you, gave you an education.”
The police complaint by the woman’s father alleges that Siddiqui and some men were coercing the woman to get married. “He lodged the complaint on Wednesday evening after the ruckus at the court in the afternoon,” SHO Mishra told Indian Express.
This story first appeared on clarionindia.net