After arrests and separation, Ghaziabad interfaith couple faces fresh blow — police order husband to leave district for 6 months

Just as the couple hoped for peace, police have dealt them a fresh blow — it has ordered Akbar’s externment from the district for six months.

Police said the action was taken against the man under the Uttar Pradesh Control of Goondas Act, 1970. The externment notice, dated September 4, was issued by Additional Commissioner of Police Alok Priyadarshi.

On Sunday, policemen, along with BJP leader Meena Bhandari, reached Akbar’s home in Indirapuram, accompanied by a drummer. In a video that has surfaced on social media, the policemen are seen announcing that several FIRs have been lodged against Akbar.

“Akbar stands exiled from the boundaries of Ghaziabad district… and if he transcends the boundaries within the stipulated time, action will be taken against him,” an officer announced.

Officers pasted a copy of the order on the door of Akbar’s house, as he was not home.

According to the notice, Akbar was named in an FIR related to rioting in a 2021 case. “People are so terrified of him in the area that no one dares to file a complaint against him… the chargesheet in both cases filed on July 7, 2025, and January 29 of 2021,” the order stated.

When contacted, Akbar’s lawyer, Chand Alam, said his client had left Ghaziabad on Sunday and moved to another state. “We did not know about this old FIR, as it was not relevant to the couple’s case. We have already moved the Allahabad High Court and will soon file petitions to prevent his arrest in the case…,” he added.

Sonika and Akbar have maintained they had been married for three years, but were reduced to their only identity — their faith.

Their troubles started after Sonika’s father, Laxman Singh Chauhan, filed a police complaint on May 25 at Indirapuram police station, alleging that Sonika had been kidnapped by Akbar and her in-laws.

The Ghaziabad Police had then raided Akbar’s home in Indirapuram and “handed over” Sonika to her parents. Police also arrested Akbar, his two sisters, his 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.

Then, on July 30, Chauhan filed another kidnapping complaint against Akbar — and he was arrested on August 2.

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 was heard saying in the video.

Speaking to The Indian Express in June, Sonika had said, “People keep telling me that I am Hindu and he is Muslim, that I have brought disrespect to my family… I just want to be with him. When will all this end?”