Bareilly woman alleges forcible nikah halala, rape by father-in-law; police book five, including husband, for gangrape

Sambhal: A woman has alleged she was forced to undergo nikah halala and marry her father-in-law who raped her, after which a case was registered against five people, including her husband, the police said on Sunday. Apart from her husband and father-in-law, the others booked include her husband’s uncle and two ‘unidentified’ clerics, a senior police official said. Additional Director General of Police (Bareilly Zone) Prem Prakash said the woman, a resident of Moradabad district, got married to a resident of Turtipura under the Nakhasa Police Station on 7 December, 2014. [caption id=“attachment_4430727” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of a protest against a rape. PTI[/caption] “The woman alleged that she was thrown out of her in-laws’ house on 25 December, 2015,” he said. On 3 January, 2016, the woman registered a case against her in-laws for harassing her. However, on 24 December, 2016, both sides reached an agreement, and she went back to her in-laws’ house, Prakash said. In her complaint, the woman said that at her in-laws’ place, her husband, his father and uncle and two clerics claimed that as she was out of the house, they had a divorce and she have to undergo nikah halala. Under nikah halala, a man cannot remarry his former wife unless she marries another man, consummates the marriage, gets a divorce and observes a period of separation period called iddat. The victim claimed that she had objected to nikah halala, but the two clerics brought by her husband’s uncle allegedly said she will be married to her father-in-law for the nikah halala process. Later, she was locked in a room with her father-in-law, who she claimed raped her. He divorced her in the morning, after which she was raped by her husband, and she became pregnant, the police said, quoting the FIR. After this, she went to her maternal home and gave birth to a boy on 6 October, 2017. The victim also alleged that she had submitted an application in this regard to the district magistrate, after which she and her family began to receive death threats from her husband and a few clerics. The ADGP said, “A case of gangrape has been registered against the woman’s husband, father-in-law, uncle-in-law and two unknown clerics.” “The case was registered on Saturday (September 1), and investigations are underway,” the senior police officer said.