Sub-Inspector Dan Singh Mehta, the investigation officer, said that in her statement in a Haldwani court, the woman denied that she was in a relationship with Danish. (Representational image)
Just over three weeks after she “married” Mohammad Danish, a 20-year-old from Haldwani will be produced before Supreme Court on Thursday in a case of abduction lodged by her family against Danish. Danish, now in police custody, had subsequently filed a habeas corpus petition.
On Monday, a SC bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra heard Danish’s petition. The SC ordered that the woman, now with her family in Haldwani, who, according to the petition, had converted to Islam before their marriage on April 19 this year, be produced before court.
Manoj Gorkela, Uttarakhand’s deputy advocate general, who is representing the state in the case, said, “We we will present her in court. She can decide whether she wishes to stay with her family, or Danish’s family.” Danish, now 23, and the Hindu woman (name withheld), first met at a coaching centre in Haldwani in 2014.
On April 18 this year, her brother filed a missing complaint with Kathgodam police after the woman was untraceable —- the two had apparently eloped from their college in Bhimtal, 29 km from Haldwani, where were BBA students, SHO of Kathgodam police station Kamaal Hasan said.
A day after they got married on April 19 in Ghaziabad, UP, Uttarakhand police detained Danish’s mother Mehak Khan (45) for allegedly “abducting” Shweta and “forcing” her into the marriage. On April 21, the couple was traced in Delhi. They were brought back to Haldwani. The woman was handed over to her parents — petition in SC claims it was “against her wishes” — and Danish was taken into police custody.
Sub-Inspector Dan Singh Mehta, the investigation officer, said that in her statement in a Haldwani court, the woman denied that she was in a relationship with Danish. “She also said she did not marry Danish and wants to stay with her parents,” Mehta said.