An 18-year-old girl who left her family about nine months ago to marry a man of her choice has returned to her home in Barmer. The girl had alleged that her husband, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar, forced her to eat cow meat and read namaz.

The young woman had also alleged that Gulzar, a resident of Jammu Kashmiri who worked in a café in Barmer, was blackmailing her with an edited photo. When he called her to Jammu and Kashmir, she went there out of the fear. There he intimidated her and forged false documents of marriage. He also pressurized her to eat beef, and to pray namaz. The victim claimed that other members of his family too had expressed lustful intentions towards her.

As per the girl’s complaint, she got the wind of how Gulzar and his brother were preparing to sell her in Dubai, she ran away from Srinagar and came to Barmer. After this incident, the victim’s family has now demanded protection from the police while describing a threat to their life. The family has levelled a serious charge of ‘Love Jihad’ against the perpetrator. Days after she heard Gulzar and his brother Iqbal talking about selling her to Dubai, she stole some money from Gulzar’s wallet and booked a flight ticket to Ahmedabad. After landing in Ahmedabad, she called her relatives in Barmer and described her ordeal to them.

The girl went missing from Barmer on March 16, 2018, while she was on her way from Barmer to Vadodara on a bus. She alighted the bus in Ahmedabad and took a connecting flight to Srinagar via Delhi. The family had also accused Gulzar of kidnapping their daughter and pressuring her to convert into Islam.

A case has been registered in Kotwali police station. Gulzar, on the other hand, had claimed that he has married the girl with her consent and has furnished a video uploaded by him on Facebook corroborating it. After this, the girl’s father filed a petition in the High Court challenging the veracity of the video and documents furnished by Gulzar. According to the father of the victim, the dates on which the marriage documents have been issued, the girl was in Barmer and Vadodara. The girl has also claimed that the video uploaded by Gulzar was shot under coercion and was edited at least 20 times.