A woman in Uttar Pradesh has alleged that she was forced into nikah halala and had to marry her father-in-law, who locked her in a room and raped her. A case has been registered against five people including her husband, the police said on Sunday.
According to nikah halala, a man cannot remarry his former wife unless she marries another man, consummates the marriage, gets a divorce and observes a period of separation period called 'iddat'.
The woman, a resident of Moradabad, alleges that she was thrown out by her husband's family from their home in Bareilly in 2015, after a year of marriage.
The woman filed a case of harassment against her in-laws a month later in January, 2016. In December that year, the two families reached an agreement and she went back to her husband, said senior police officer Prem Prakash.
That was the beginning of her nightmare. Her husband, his father, his uncle and two clerics claimed that as she had been away, it counted as a divorce and she would have to submit to nikah halala.
The woman alleged that she fought against her in-laws, but the two clerics brought in by her husband's uncle forced her wedding with her father-in-law.
She was then locked in a room with her father-in-law, who allegedly raped her. In the morning, the two were divorced.
Soon after, the woman's husband raped her and she became pregnant, the police said, quoting the First Information Report. The woman had a baby boy last year.
She alleged she had complained to the district magistrate but she and her family started getting death threats from her husband and others.
A case was finally registered on Saturday.
The woman's husband, father-in-law and her husband's uncle have been charged. "A case of gang-rape has been registered against the woman's husband, father-in-law, uncle-in-law and two clerics," said the officer.
