UP woman cop wants interfaith marriage, family claims forced conversion

Lucknow, June 18

The family of a woman sub-inspector posted in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly has raised objections after she filed an application to marry a Muslim man under the Special Marriage Act, which allows two people from different religions to tie the knot without changing their faith.

The sub-inspector's family has accused the Muslim man of forcibly trying to get her to illegally convert to Islam and marry him.

The family also requested the senior police authorities to transfer the woman to some other district closer to their native place Meerut so that she could be brought out of his influence.

Bareilly city magistrate N. Ram, who is in-charge of the Sadar Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), said it is true that the woman S-I and a driver have applied to get married under the Special Marriage Act.

He said the application was submitted to SDM Pratush Pandey on May 17, on which a police report was sought till June 16 and notices were sent to the families of both the S-I and the driver to approach the SDM court if they had any objection to the marriage.

"After coming to know that the S-I is marrying a Muslim man, her family from Meerut reached Bareilly last week and raised an objection to the marriage," he said.

"The SDM court will summon both the families and try to sort out the issue with mutual consent."

The S-I's brother has also approached additional director general (ADG) of Police, Bareilly Zone, Prem Chand Meena, requesting him to transfer his sister to other district like Shamli, Bijnor or Saharanpur, which are closer to Meerut, so that her association with the Muslim man could end.

He mentioned in the application that the police should take stern action against the man and accused him of brainwashing and blackmailing his sister for the marriage.

The brother claimed that he came to know that the man used to take her to Islamic religious places and clerics to brainwash her.

He further added that he suspected that the man had kept some objectionable photographs of the woman S-I and was blackmailing her for marriage and conversion to Islam.

The woman S-I did not respond to multiple calls made to her over the phone for her version.