Pressure mounted on Islamic policymakers to scrap nikah halala formally after India Today's damning investigation exposed shocking exploitation of women wishing to restore their broken marriages under personal laws.

Community elders sought to disown maulvis and scholars caught on tape striking deals to participate in the insidious practice that requires a divorced Muslim woman to sleep with a stranger in order for her to return to her husband.

Villagers at Bulandshahr's Til Gaon expressed anguish over the conduct of a local imam, Zahir-ul-lah of Mewatian Masjid, who had introduced India Today's undercover reporters with an aged man for nikah halala. Many of them agreed the cleric has undermined Islam.

Zahir-ul-lah, according to the villagers, went into hiding after India Today broadcast its investigation on Wednesday. Greed, they alleged, had probably driven the imam to broker nikah-halala deals.

His wife Afroza also disagreed with her husband's advocacy of nikah halala, but denied knowing he officiated one-night stands as an imam.

Zahir-ul-lah, who appeared Thursday, claimed innocence. "I didn't know they were reporters. I never said I would broker nikah halala," he insisted. "I was only explaining the process of nikah halala."

CAUGHT MARKETING NIKAH HALALA SERVICES

At Sikheda village in western UP's Hapur district, Mohammed Zahid also went underground after India Today showed him marketing his services for nikah halala.

"We'll see to it. We have the men. It will be done through them. If you don't trust them, I am always available for it," Zahid was heard promising to the undercover reporters. He quoted a bill of Rs 1 lakh-Rs 1.5 lakh for participating in a temporary marriage for sex.

According to his wife, Hasina, Zahid had left home at 5 am on Thursday. Hasina claimed she never heard her husband took part in nikah halala before.

Mohammad Mustaquim was not found at his Darul Uloom Mahmoodia Madrasa in Delhi on Thursday. Educated in Islamic studies, Mustaquim had been caught on camera willing to do what he had done several times before -- sleeping with divorced women to consummate nikah halala.

In his comments, Zubair Qasmi, a Delhi-based maulana married with two wives, flatly denied demanding money for sex as part of nikah halala.

MAULANA'S UNABASHED CLAIMS

"I spend many nights out. It's much easier to manage this with two (wives). One would think I am with the second. And the second would think I am with the other. It's not at all difficult with two (wives)," he bragged in India Today's investigative report.

Meantime, P.P. Chaudhary, union minister of state for law and justice, said any custom that violates gender equality and fundamental rights is itself violative of the constitution.

In her remarks, Manipur governor Najma Heptulla described nikah halala as unIslamic.

Noorjehan Safia Niaz, founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, underscored the need for the community to raise its voice against nikah halala. She also called for legal measures to abolish the practice.

With inputs from Poulomi Saha

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