Police in neighbouring Kushinagar stopped a wedding function and took the couple to the police station for interrogation after a complaint that it was an interfaith marriage involving a minor girl.
The man and the woman turned out to be both Muslims and adults. The man told a newspaper later that he was thrashed with a leather belt at the station, an allegation denied by police. Kushinagar Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar Singh said someone from Gurnia village had informed them on Tuesday that a couple was getting “quietly” married there, and suspected it to be a case of “love jehad.”
The term is used by right-wing activists to refer to marriages allegedly performed for the sake of religious conversion. A police team reached the spot and found a ‘maulvi’ and the couple there and brought them to police station for interrogation, the SP said.
He said police later established that both were adults and belonged to the same faith. The two eloped 13 days ago from Azamgarh and the woman’s family had lodged a missing person’s report at the police station, he said.