A 21-year-old woman, who had last month lodged a police complaint of rape against a father-son duo from Kalyan, has now retracted her allegations. The woman from Uttar Pradesh, Yasmeen Baig, has approached the Bombay high court and the police, claiming that she had lodged a false complaint against Shafique Shaikh and his 20-year-old son Aatesham alias Sonu.

Yasmeen and Aatesham got married last week.

On June 16, Yasmeen had accused Shafique and Aatesham – now her father-in-law and husband respectively – of having raped her over a period of time.Aatesham and Yasmeen were in love and wanted to get married. However, when his father learnt about this, he refused to grant consent to their marriage. This, said Yasmeen, had spurred her to lodge a police complaint against Shafique and Aatesham.

Yasmeen had arrived in Kalyan over a year ago to meet another man whom she had got acquainted with over a series of phone calls. She left her home in the northern state without informing her family to meet the man. However, when she reached Kalyan and tried calling him up, the man developed cold feet and refused to show up for their meeting. Yasmeen’s brother in Uttar Pradesh learnt from someone the helpless state she had landed in.

Since her brother knew Shafique Shaikh, he called him up and requested him to help his sister by sheltering her. That’s how Yasmeen had reached the Shaikh household over a year ago.

After Yasmeen lodged a complaint of rape, the father-duo were absconding.Yasmeen now claims that she had not intended to lodge a complaint against the police but had gone to the police station to seek help as she was in a relationship with Aatesham but his father was not consenting to their marriage.

A social worker from Kalyan, Mohammed Sayyed who helped sort matters out between Yasmeen and the Shaikhs, said that Yasmeen had only gone to the police to seek their help but the police went by rules and filed a rape case against Aatesham and Shafique.

Yasmeen told dna that the case was a false one. “I never imagined all this could snowball and land Aatesham and his father in trouble... I have now written to the deputy commissioner of police with a request that I would like to take back my complaint,” said Yasmeen.

Deputy commissioner of police (Kalyan zone) Parag Manare directed dna to get details from the investigating officer in the case. The officer, however, said that there are preparing the paperwork and since it is now a legal matter, the court will take a decision.