MP: Man, parents assaulted over his interfaith relationship

Police said the September 15 incident happened after Wajid tried to meet the woman at the village, where she had been sent to stay with her relatives by her parents owing to the relationship. They said the relatives were involved in the assault.

“Why would I go meet a girl in the afternoon with my parents despite knowing the risks? I would have gone to meet her covering face in the dark to avoid any attention,” Wajid told The Indian Express lying on the hospital bed in Chhindwara.

He said he and his parents were on their way to meet a relative in a different village.

On September 20, Chhindwara police arrested Santosh Pal (40), Mahesh Pal (32), Naik Ram Pal (35) and Sushma Pal (30) under the IPC Sections for obscenity (Section 294), criminal intimidation (506) and voluntarily causing hurt (323) and common intention (34).

Wajid’s family alleged that while an FIR was registered on September 15, invoking four sections of the IPC, it has reduced an attempted lynching to merely a fight

Wajid said: “I told the police how I was tied using a belt and dragged along, my mother’s burqa was torn and my father’s beard pulled and our valuables including her gold chain, gold rings, earrings and Rs 10,000 in cash were stolen. The FIR they wrote was completely different.”

Wajid, a resident of Lalgaon village, had eloped with an 18-year-old girl from his village on August 12. The woman’s family had registered a missing person complaint.

According to Wajid, the two had gone to Nashik and performed a nikah. “We were in the process of getting a court marriage done but it was taking as long as we belonged to MP. Before we could get a court marriage done, we were caught by the police on August 17 and brought back to Chhindwara on August 18,” he said.

Wajid’s mother, Samina Ali, has submitted a written application to Chhindwara Superintendent of Police Vivek Agrawal describing the incident. She said the police arrived at the scene after four hours, at 7 pm.
Agrawal did not respond to repeated calls and messages by The Indian Express.

Chourai police station in-charge Shashi Vishwakarma said the matter is being investigated and sections will be added if needed as per the findings.