Sachin Kashyap met Shabina Khatun via online chatting in 2011. Sachin lived in Lakhimpur Khiri of Uttar Pradesh while Shabina was a resident of Budge Budge in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. As their friendship blossomed, Sachin soon met her in person. One thing led to another and they got married in 2013.
It being a inter-religious marriage raised its own set of challenges. Sachin claims that his in-laws were aggravated by the decision of Shabina (also known as Simran after marriage), and issues started cropping up in a few days after their marriage.
A year into the marriage, his wife was cajoled to her parent’s house three years ago. When Sachin went to West Bengal to bring her back to Uttar Pradesh, his in-laws allegedly demanded that he become a Muslim first.
According to him, his wife soon fled her parent’s home and all was well for the next three years, during which they were blessed with a son whom they named Jiyansh. But the good days didn’t last long and Sachin narrated his plight to us on phone.
As claimed by Sachin, his wife and his kid who is now around 1.5 years old, went missing on 26th January this year. According to a police complaint filed by him on 27th January, they left for the school, where his wife taught, in the morning of 26th but didn’t come back.
He suspects his in-laws of being involved in their disappearance. He claims that they had called him a day after the disappearance of his wife and son asking whether he had made some headway. After that, they never called again and if he calls them, they either don’t pick up his calls (if he uses his own mobile number) or ask him to stop bothering them (if called from someone else’s number).
Sachin believes that had they (his in-laws) not been involved in his wife and kid’s disappearance, they would actually have initiated proceedings against him to teach him a lesson rather than ignoring him. Their careless attitude towards their own daughter’s safety and whereabouts makes him believe that his in-laws could be responsible behind disappearance of his wife and kid.
When asked why did he not visit his in-laws in West Bengal and try to find out if his wife and kid were there, he says that he is afraid of his own security. He also claims that the only way he is allowed to visit their home is if he embraces Islam.
Even though he filed the complaint in January, he claims that the police did not do anything and instead asked him to make efforts himself to locate his wife and kid. He then took to Twitter and sought help directly from Prime Minister Narendra Modi:
@narendramodi modi ji me bahut badi musibat me hu mere bete Ki jindgi apke hath he 13 din se me apne bache Ki sakal ni dekh pays plss help
— sachin kashyap (@sachinkashyp446) February 7, 2017
Sachin claims that his tweets were noted by the Prime Minister’s Office and a communication was sent to the police, after which finally an FIR was registered on 25th March:
The FIR has been filed against unknown persons under the section 498 of the IPC, which involves detaining a married woman with criminal intent. However, the pace of inquiry remained slow, Sachin alleges.
Sachin took to Twitter again and tried to share his plight with the public. A couple of days back, people finally started noticing his tweets:
मेरे बच्चे की जिंदगी मोदी जी ही बचा सकते है मेरा बेटा कोलकाता में मुस्लिमो के कब्जे में है में यूपी का हु pic.twitter.com/1PBMmT2779
— sachin kashyap (@sachinkashyp446) April 21, 2017
— sachin kashyap (@sachinkashyp446) April 25, 2017
He informs that thanks to the people who noticed his tweets and amplified the matter, he has now received a call from the Kolkata Crime Branch and Howrah Police Station, whose officials took all the details of his case and assured him their help.
One only hopes that culprits are caught after investigations by Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal police, and Sachin is reunited with his family.
