Madhu Vishwakarma who converted to Islam and became Simran Begum after her love marriage, has reached out to the police for help, after her husband and family allegedly started torturing her for dowry. The accused have been booked under the Uttar Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act among other charges.
Madhu filed a police case at Izzat Nagar police station of Bareilly district in Uttar Pradesh on 29 November 2022 against her husband Irfan, sister-in-law Chandikan and other family members.
Rashtra Jyoti accessed the FIR (number—984/2022). Below is her statement recorded in the FIR:
Before her marriage, she lived in the Air Force Peer Bahoda area in Bareilly. She was an avid follower of Hindu religion. Six years ago, while she was a student, Irfan Sheikh, a resident of the Tilwada area, began following her to college every day. They got talking.
He introduced himself as Rahul. Then lured her into his fake love web and the duo eloped for marriage. After marriage, they began living in a rented apartment in the Choti Vihar area. When she started living with him, she found out he was Muslim.
On confronting, she was also forced to convert to Islam. After conversion, her name was changed to Simran and they underwent a ‘nikah’ ritual as per Islam.
Madhu has two daughters from this marriage – one is five years old while the other is three years old. In July this year, she gave birth to another daughter who, unfortunately, did not survive and died in September.
After the third daughter was born, Irfan and his family members started torturing Madhu. However, it was not that they did not harass her in the past. But after the birth of the third daughter, the torture became unbearable.
On 30 September, Irfan, his brothers and mother Sakeena thrashed Madhu and threw her out along with the daughters. She tried talking to Irfan and returning home but he did not respond.
On 27 November, he took her back to his house, but assaulted her there badly. He tied her hands and beat her up. In the middle of the night, he again threw her out of his house.
Irfan told her that his religion allows him to have four wives. He is in a relationship with other Hindu girls as well. Madhu’s statement concludes here.
Madhu gave a video statement to the media on the day she reached the police station for help.
In the video (attached below) she says that she married a man of her choice six years ago but has been living with her parents for the past two months. Her husband is saying that she will be allowed to return home only after she brings one lakh rupees and an Apache bike.
She repeats in the video that Irfan posed as Rahul before marriage.
Madhu belongs to the Sonar caste.
The police
The accused Irfan and his family members have been booked under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and sections 3 and 5(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021.
Rashtra Jyoti called up the Station House Officer of Izzatnagar, Sanjay Kumar, on 13 December. He said that the key accused was absconding. He said that the victim recorded her statement under section 164 of the CrPC the next day of the complaint.
An activist, Rahul Singh, who is helping the woman told Rashtra Jyoti that the police are not actively pursuing the case. “They hare not taking it seriously. The police only registered this case only after we activists assembled in front of their office,” he said.
The victim told Rashtra Jyoti that she did not want to talk to media any further.
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