CHANDIGARH: Barely a couple months after the Supreme Court adjudicated a ‘

’ case and allowed a woman from Kerala – Hadiya – to live with her husband, another petition has been filed on similar lines in the Punjab and

high court. An 18-year-old girl from Chandigarh has alleged that she was raped by a boy from

Srinagar

, forcibly converted to

Islam

and then later gangraped by the boy’s relatives.

In her plea before the high court, the girl has sought directions for an investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) or CBI in line with the Hadiya case. She has alleged that the Chandigarh police did not investigate the case fairly.

On June 4, she had alleged that two men had tried to throw acid on her face. However, doctors did not find any burn marks on her. The accused in the rape case is facing trial in a juvenile court in Chandigarh and is out on bail.

The girl’s plea came up for hearing on May 1 before Justice Anita Chaudhary of the high court, who asked her counsel to place on record the proof of her age by July 18, when the case will be heard again.

Girl claims boy’s mother terminated her pregnancy

The Supreme Court had on March 8 restored the marriage of Hadiya, aka Akhila Asokan, with Shafin Jahan, 10 months after the

had annulled it besides ordering a probe into a possible 'love jihad' angle in the case. At the same time, the Supreme Court had permitted NIA to continue with its probe into 'love jihad'.

According to the Chandigarh girl’s petition, the accused contacted the girl on Facebook in January 2016, posing as a Hindu boy and both became friends. In November 2016, both met at a Sector 22 hotel in Chandigarh, where the accused tried to start a relationship with her. When she refused, he went back to Srinagar. At that time, she came to know that he was a Muslim.As per the petition, the girl was upset with the boy for concealing his real identity, but he threatened to commit suicide in the hotel itself. She then consented to continue the relationship and stayed in touch over phone. Even the boy’s family members started talking to her.

The two met again in April 2017 at a hotel in Chandigarh where he allegedly forced her into a physical relationship and took objectionable photographs of her. According to her plea, she was shattered because the boy asked her to convert to Islam as a necessary condition to return the objectionable photographs.

The boy took her to a mosque in Burail village in Chandigarh where she was converted to Islam. After the marriage, the boy moved to Srinagar but remained in touch over phone. The girl has claimed that in May and June 2017, she travelled to Srinagar twice to get back her photographs but on both occasions, she was not only illtreated by the boy’s mother and other family members but was raped by five other members of boy’s family.

The petition states that boy’s mother forcefully terminated her pregnancy and that they took away all her money and jewelry.

The Chandigarh police registered a case of rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on July 18, 2017. The girl has claimed in her plea that the police concluded in the charge sheet that it was a simple case of consensual relationship. According to the girl, the cops ignored the offences committed in Jammu and Kashmir when they should have been considered as ‘continuing offence’.

According to the petitioner, she had not only given her complaint to the DGP, Jammu and Kashmir but also given a criminal complaint against the boy and his family members before the judicial magistrate in Srinagar which is pending. In support of her allegations, the girl has submitted a screenshot of the Facebook page of the accused, copies of the Nikahnama, travelling documents to Srinagar, name of all persons who allegedly raped her in Srinagar and phone numbers through which the boy’s family members called her.