A newlywed Hindu girl who was abducted on 8 April while going to her in-laws’ place along with her husband, continues to remain untraceable, leading the Bajrang Dal to threaten protests, as reported by Indian express. The girl hails from the Etmadpur town in Uttar Pradesh.
As per a Patrika report, following the incident, the police has sent a few individuals to jail but has still failed to intercept the main accused Shahzad who has a Rs 25,000 reward on his head. It has been claimed that Shahzad attacked the newlyweds’ car and took away the girl.
The Indian Express report though gives another angle to the story by claiming that the newlywed girl and Shahzad have eloped willingly and as claimed by Rajesh Kumar Pandey – Senior Superintendent of Police (Meerut), have even moved the Allahabad High Court to seek police protection.
Pandey is further quoted as claiming that the woman might have been forced into marriage by her family.
What makes the affair even more puzzling is the fact that despite being absconding, Shahzad is regularly updating his Facebook feed, with the police now writing to Facebook to trace their location.
Owing to the police’s failure to trace the duo, the Bajrang Dal which calls this a matter of Love Jihad has threatened an agitation. The report also claims that the brother of the girl was shot while returning from a meeting with the SSP on 17 April, an attack for which Shahzad has also been accused.
Now as claimed by an Amar Ujala report, the accused Shahzad, who has a criminal record, is supposedly being given protection by a BSP leader. This information though hasn’t yet been verified.
As per SP Rakesh Kumar, on Saturday Shahzad had uploaded a selfie with the girl on Facebook, which had prompted inflammatory comments on the post.
BJP MLA Dinesh Khatik has claimed that such posts have created tension in the area. The MLA has also claimed that the attack on the brother has terrorised the girl’s family. Besides this “abduction” Shahzad has been accused in the past of robbery and attacking a police officer.
As per Bajrang Dal’s leader Balraj Dungar, they would be forced to launch an agitation if the police didn’t trace the duo soon and expressed anger over the Facebook posts, which he claimed, were designed to hurt their sentiments.
A Jagran report has claimed that BJP MLAs Khatik and Satyavir Tyagi already went down in this route on Saturday after they along with hundreds of supporters met SP Rakesh Kumar. In that meeting, they made it clear that the matter pertained to love jihad – something which will not be tolerated under their government.
