Cases of love traps based on fraudulent identity are emerging every other day from across the country.
The latest such case has been reported from Hindu holy city of Haridwar in Uttarakhand state. A woman has filed a case against her husband alleging that the man hid his Muslim identity from her for nine years.
She is a mother of two. She says her life is shattered as it is difficult for her to digest that she had been lied to all these years.
She says she found the truth after she accidentally found an Aaadhar Card at home. It had her husband’s (Rahul’s) photograph but the name mentioned was Azhar Ahmad.
She says she confronted him after which he started threatening her. After tolerating his threats for almost two and a half months, she registered a police complaint against him.
The FIR
A First Information Report (number—41/2023) was registered at the Kankhal police station on 30 January 2023.
Sonia Sharma told the police that she married Rahul nine years ago who turned out to be Azhar Ahmad. She found an Aaadhar Card which claims he is Muslim. He is now forcing her to convert to Islam.
See her statement below:
The statement says he threatened her that he would chop her into pieces if she refused to convert.
What The Police Told Rashtra Jyoti
The Investigating Officer, Upendra Singh, told Rashtra Jyoti that they arrested the accused on 31 January.
A report by Hindustan Times, published on 1 February (Delhi edition), quoted the Station House Officer (SHO) Naresh Rathore as saying that the accused has accepted all the allegations against him. During interrogation, he revealed that he was already married to a woman from his Muslim community and has two children with her.
He has been booked under IPC sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 420 (cheating and dishonesty) and 506 (criminal intimidation), along with sections 3 and 5 of the Uttarakhand Freedom of religion Act, 2018.
What The Victim told Rashtra Jyoti
Sonia told this correspondent that her parents live in Delhi.
She walked out of her first marriage as her in-laws were not happy with her for not being able to become a mother. She started living with her parents but things were not good as her sister-in-law (brother’s wife) was not happy with her living with them. She left home and moved to a rented place in Haridwar.
There, she started working at a mobile assembling shop, where she met Rahul. He was a contractor by profession. Over time when they started liking each other, Rahul asked her to leave that job. She quit and left to join another company.
Rahul and Sonia got married to each other in 2014 at a temple. It was a wedding as per Hindu rituals. Neither of their parents joined them at the wedding. Sonia has no pictures from their wedding day as she had a keypad phone back then.
When they were thinking of getting married to each other, Sonia asked him to go to court but he made an excuse saying it’s a laborious process. He said she should trust him as he loves her a lot.
Sonia’s parents did not come as she was deciding things on her own. They were unhappy with her decision.
Rahul’s family did not come as he was marrying a divorced woman – this is what Rahul told Sonia.
Living with Rahul made her realize that all his show of love was just a fraud. He would drink a lot and beat her up almost every other day. This was not it, he would have unnatural (anal) sex with her when he was drunk. He even forced her to have sex with him when she was pregnant with his second child (in the eighth month).
She recalled an instance while speaking with this correspondent when he hit her with a frying pan on questioning his whereabouts. She had checked his phone that day suspecting his relationship with another woman.
Angered over this, he hit her with the pan and asked her to leave. At midnight, she left his place with her son. She was in her eighth month of pregnancy, but Rahul did not bother to stop her. Whenever he would beat her her elder son would ask, ‘Is papa drunk?.
His behaviour was beginning to have a bad impact on her growing son.
Asked why she did not leave him after that incident, she said she had no other option and no one to go to except him.
About his religious beliefs, she said that Rahul was just like any other Hindu man. For example, he would go to the temple, wear a kalawa, accept prasad and go to “Ganga ji” (Ganga ghat). The couple had a small temple at home. Rahul would also take her to religious places on Shivratri, Navratri and other special occasions without a slight change in his behaviour. She kept ‘Karwachauth’ fast for him.
She shared a picture of their family trip.
Two months ago, Rahul returned from a trip and she found his bag to be dirty. Sonia decided to wash it. While taking things out of the bag, she found an Aaadhar Card with the name Azhar Ahmad. The card said he was son of Zafar Ahmad, a resident of Kasganj district in Uttar Pradesh.
When she confronted him, he hurriedly snatched the card from her. When she did not stop, instead of answering her questions, he started hitting her.
Sonia left home with her children that day. Since then, Rahul alias Azhar started threatening her of chopping her into pieces. After bearing all these threats for two months, Sonia decided to take help from the police.
Asked if she had any screenshots from their chats with the threats, she said that as soon as she tried to take the screenshots, he would delete the message.
Now she recalls her days with Rahul saying his behaviour was suspicious all along. He would go on trips for work every other month. He never discussed his family or his past. He would say, “I never ask about your ex-husband so you should also not ask about my parents.”
Now she realises where his trips would take him to.
Asked if he was already married, Sonia said she has no idea about it.
Sonia only knows that his father passed away in 2017. It was only then he told her that he is going to his parents’ house. He did not take her along.
Asked if he had taken their children alone somewhere for the circumcision ritual, she said no. If he would have done that, she would surely know, she said.
Asked if she would return to him if he did not force her to convert, Sonia said no.
She says Rahul would often bring non-vegetarian food home from outside as she would refuse to cook it, being a Brahmin by caste. Once, he told her he had mixed Chicken gravy in her food. She did not eat dinner that day.
Sonia recalls that after they watched the Shraddha Walker murder case on television, which was carried out by her live-in partner Aaftab, she badmouthed Muslim men. Rahul listened to her calmly and said, “Muslims are like that only” (“Mohammedan hote hi aise hain”).
Sonia asked this correspondent, “How could I know he was lying, Mam?”
She says she is now looking for a job as she would never go to back to him even if he gets bail. Sonia has studied till Class 12 and has experience of working in mobile, bulb and electric battery assembling companies.
She says she would not let her sons follow their father and be like him. She would raise them well, she says.
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