GORAKHPUR: Rumour about a 'love jihad' wedding in Kushinagar led cops to a runaway bride early this week. However, when police found that both bride and groom were not minors and belonged to the same faith, they soleminsed their marriage after convincing the girl's family.
"On Tuesday evening, someone from Gurmia village informed the local police station about a couple marrying quietly in the village and expressed suspicion that a Muslim boy was getting married to a Hindu girl who was not a local resident. Police team, along with circle officer Kasia -- Piyush Kant Rai -- reached the spot and found a maulvi and the couple and took them for interrogation. Police found that both of them were not minor and of the same faith (Muslim)," Kushinagar SP Vinod Kumar Singh said.
"The girl had eloped with the man around 13 days ago from Azamgarh and during a video call the family of the girl recognized her. They also informed us that they had lodged a missing report in Azamgarh," SP Kushinagar said, dismissing allegations that cops assaulted the boy.
Singh clarified to TOI that the man was not a criminal, nor had any case registered against him in any of the police stations of the district, so there was no question of torturing or detaining the couples for any purpose.
A social worker of the area, Armaan Khan, who helped the couple solemnise the marriage told TOI that he was present with the couple throughout at the police station. “I was with them at the police station and no policeman had beaten them or used any abusive language,” he added.
He also said that some locals had informed police about interfaith marriage however when police found that both man and woman were adults and also of the same faith, they talked to the woman’s family on video call as there was a missing report against her in Azamgarh.
The groom, identified as Haider Ali, 39, has a barber’s shop in Gola bazaar in Kasia and he asked me to help him in his marriage, Armaan said.
The couple met for the first time on a train to Narkatiaganj in Bihar a year ago and since then they started talking on phone and later decided to get married. However the girl’s family was against it, Armaan said.