Surat: Police in Tapi and Surat districts are facing pressure from some groups and family members of a 22-year-old Hindu woman who had recently eloped with her 24-year-old Muslim paramour.
They are asking police to bring back the woman, who became friends with the man belonging to another community while studying in a college in Bardoli. Police investigation revealed that the woman was having an affair with the man for the past two years.
Sejal Patel, a resident of Valod village in Tapi district, went missing from near Ena village under the limits of Palsana police station of Surat district on May 6. Her family filed a missing person’s report in Palsana police station alleging that Sejal was suspected to have eloped with Mohommad Nawaz Hanif Malek, 26, a resident of Valod. She was sent to her uncle’s house 10 days before she went missing in Palsana.
Mohommad and Sejal had got their marriage registered at the marriage registrar’s office in Vyara a month ago. A few days later, Sejal submitted in writing there that she wanted to cancel her marriage registration and was sent by her parents to Palsana at her uncle’s house from where she disappeared. Police have not been able to trace her.
“The girl was forcibly taken or blackmailed by the man to go with him. We are demanding that police rescue her,” said Kulin Pradhan, district coordinator of Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM) in Vyara. The HJM along with other groups had recently organized a rally in Vyara and submitted a memorandum to the police demanding that the woman be brought back. The groups also held a ‘Ram Dhun’ outside Valod police station.
“The woman’s missing report has been registered at Palsana police station. Her house is in Valod of Tapi district, and hence her family and some groups took out a rally in Vyara demanding that she be brought back. There is no tension in the district,” said M N Patel, deputy superintendent of police, Tapi.
The family has received a notarized document in which Sejal claims to have got married to Mohommad. They are believed to have got married in Malegaon of Maharashtra. Mohommad was employed as a driver in the office of a lawyer in Bardoli, while Sejal was unemployed. Both had graduated from the Arts College in Bardoli.
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