Inter-faith couple harrasment: Eyewitness who backed babu ‘kidnapped’

The ongoing debate on issuance of passport to Tanvi Seth, who had an inter-faith marriage with Anas Siddiqui, took a curious turn on Sunday after an eyewitness of the row which broke out between the inter-faith couple and a passport officer claimed that he was kidnapped for speaking in defense to the embattled passport officer.

The man identified as Kuldeep Singh of B Block of Jankipuram Extension claimed that unidentified miscreants who were riding two different SUVs stopped near him when he was near CDRI in the locality. “The group bundled me in one of the SUV and drove me towards an unidentified destination while not allowing to me to look outside of the SUV.

He claimed that the miscreants stopped for lunch at a dhaba near Sansarpur police outpost while leaving him abandoned in the SUV. “I opened the rear doors of the SUV and rescued self. Then I reached to the police outpost to get help from the police. I was taken to Mailani police station in Lakhimpur Kheri and then was handed over to the Lucknow police,” he told to police when was quizzed.

He said he was present at the passport office when Tanvi Seth and her husband had a verbal spat with the passport officer Vikas Mihsra. “I had given a statement in favour to the passport officer when a news channel took my byte while covering of the incident at the passport office,’ he claimed.

Kuldeep further claimed that he was kidnapped just before he was scheduled to address a press conference in Lucknow in support of the passport officer and to prove his innocence in the dispute.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Lucknow Deepak Kumar confirmed that Kuldeep was an eyewitness in the brawl which took place between the inter-faith couple and the passport officer.  “Kuldeep seemingly had coined the story to gain media attention. He now had claimed that he had invested in bitcoins and was kidnapped on a money related dispute. The police are scanning the CCTV footages of the toll tax plaza in Itaunja and other places which fell between Lucknow and Lakhimpur Kheri. The police are cross checking the allegation made by Kuldeep,” the SSP said.

Meanwhile, UP police will verify the credentials of the couple on Monday following a request from MEA. Tanvi Seth and her husband Anas Siddique had alleged that a passport office official in Lucknow, Vikas Mishra, had refused to entertain their forms while allegedly asking the man to convert to Hinduism and woman to use her maiden Hindu name. The local intelligence unit (LIU) in Lucknow has confirmed it has received a single page correspondence regarding their verification.