Ghaziabad interfaith couple under fire again: Man held for wife’s ‘abduction’ — twice in two months
This was not the first time that Sonika’s family had accused Akbar of abducting her
4 min read
Akbar Khan (29) and Sonika Chauhan (25) maintained they had been married for three years but were reduced to their only identity – their faith (Express Photo)For the second time in two months, a Ghaziabad man was arrested on Friday for allegedly abducting his 25-year-old wife — despite the woman maintaining that they got married under the Special Marriage Act and she had left her parents’ home of her own free will.
The police, later in the day, sent the woman to her parents’ home.
Akbar Khan (29) and Sonika Chauhan (25) maintained they had been married for three years but were reduced to their only identity – their faith.
On July 30, Sonika’s father, Laxman Singh Chauhan, had filed a complaint at the Indirapuram police station, alleging that she had been kidnapped by her husband, Akbar, and in-laws.
Minutes later, a purported video had surfaced in which Sonika claimed that she had left her home on July 30 to be with Akbar. “I, Sonika, on July 30, around 2 pm, left my house as per my wish… For the last two months, my parents and some other people, including Meena Bhandari, Harish Karakoti, Kapil Tyagi, my maternal uncle Vikram Rawat and my paternal uncle Jagdish Singh Chauhan, had been torturing me physically and mentally… they wanted me to give a statement against Akbar in court and frame him under the POCSO (Act) and put him behind bars. But I protested… I will only tell the truth,” she is heard saying in the video.
This was not the first time that Sonika’s family had accused Akbar of abducting her.
On May 25, too, Laxman had filed a similar complaint at the same police station — accusing Akbar of kidnapping Sonika a day earlier.
Back then, Sonika had clarified that she had left home on her own.
Ghaziabad interfaith couple: Nearly two months after the father of a 25-year-old woman in Ghaziabad accused her in-laws of kidnapping her, only for the daughter to claim that she has entered into an interfaith marriage by choice, her family filed a complaint at the Indirapuram… pic.twitter.com/K30b5lJu7l
The Ghaziabad Police had then raided Akbar’s home in Indirapuram and “handed over” Sonika to her parents. Following this, the police had arrested Akbar, his two sisters, sister-in-law, and a neighbour. A group of around 60 men had also attacked Akbar’s shop and vandalised it.
A purported video had surfaced before Akbar’s arrest in May, in which Sonika could be heard saying that she wanted to stay with him and that they had secretly gotten married at a Delhi SDM office under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, in August 2022.
Akbar was released on bail on June 8.
On Friday, Ghaziabad Commissioner of Police, J Ravinder Goud, said Akbar was arrested in the fresh case of abduction. “The woman was sent to stay with her family after we took an undertaking from her parents,” he told The Indian Express.
Asked why she was sent to stay with her family when she had maintained that she was mentally tortured at their home, Goud said he would check if she wished to stay at a One Stop Centre, set up to support women affected by violence. “Her safety is our priority, and we will record her statement on Saturday before the magistrate,” he added.
Laxman, in his latest complaint, had alleged that Sonika was abducted in the middle of the night by Akbar and his accomplices. He also alleged that Akbar’s family had been threatening his family in the days leading up to Sonika’s “abduction on May 24”.
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