A 22-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh, who was sent to a shelter home and her husband arrested under a new law against forced conversions by marriage, alleged on Tuesday that her mother leveled fake charges against the interfaith couple and added that she married a Muslim man and converted to Islam of her free will.
The woman, Muskan Jahan or Pinki, also alleged that medical negligence at the shelter home was responsible for the miscarriage of her three-month-old foetus – a charge denied by the state administration. “I am happy with my marriage and have snapped all my relations with my parents, who reside in Moradabad,” she told media persons.
Her comments came a day after she was released from the shelter home and moved back into her in-laws’ house in Moradabad district’s Kaanth town. On Monday, she told a magistrate that she was a major, 22 years old and married Mohammad Rashid under no pressure. She demanded the immediate release of her husband, Rashid, and his elder brother, Mohammad Saleem.
Jahan was the first woman detained under the UP Prohibition Of Unlawful Conversion Of Religion Ordinance 2020, which outlaws religious conversions by marriage, coercion or enticement. She had converted to Islam after marrying Rashid, 28. She was shifted to a government shelter home after Rashid was booked on December 6.
Speaking on Tuesday, Jahan accused the staff of the shelter home of ill-treating her and providing treatment only when her health grew worse. “They ignored my complaint of pain in the stomach for three days and took me to hospital only when my health deteriorated,” Muskan said.
She further alleged that injections and medicines given to her in hospital were to terminate her pregnancy. This allegation was refuted by the inspector of Kaanth police station, Ajay Gautam, who described the allegations as “rumour” and “fake news”.
Jahan and Rashid fell in love and married in Dehradun on July 24 in a madrassa. Rashid belongs to Kaanth town of Moradabad district and went to the local court on December 6 to get his marriage registered. But some local Hindu activists landed at the court, took the couple to Kaanth police station.
At the time, Gautam said the woman’s mother had charged Rashid of enticing Jahan by posing as a Hindu man, Sonu, and hiding his religious identity. Later, Rashid was booked under section 3 of the new law and Jahan was sent to a shelter home.
But Jahan said she knew that her husband was Muslim and blamed the Hindu activists, saying they started the trouble on December 6. The activists took them to police station and also brought her mother there, she alleged.