The woman also accused her husband and his family members of forcing her into Islam and imposing their rituals on her. (Representational) The woman also accused her husband and his family members of forcing her into Islam and imposing their rituals on her. (Representational)

Meerut police on Saturday booked a man for allegedly cheating a woman into marriage and forcing her to convert to Islam. Accompanied by local Bajrang Dal leaders, the 27-year-old woman lodged a complaint against her husband and his family with the district police chief. She claimed that she had escaped her husband’s house in Sardhana police station area earlier in the day and met with the Bajrang Dal activists.

“The woman alleged that her husband had introduced himself as a Hindu and married her 10 years ago. She is from Kolkata and the accused is from Meerut. We have registered an FIR based on her complaint and are investigating her allegations,” Meerut SSP Rajesh Kumar Pandey said. The husband, he said, is absconding.

Talking to the media, the woman claimed that she met 32-year-old “Raju” in Kolkata and married him there. She claimed that she discovered her husband’s true identity after six years of marriage when they moved to Meerut. She also accused her husband and his family members of forcing her into Islam and imposing their rituals on her.

Talking to The Indian Express, Bajrang Dal Prant Sanyojak Balraj Dungar – who accompanied the woman to the SSP office on Saturday – said that the woman married Raju on May 25, 2007. “On Saturday she managed to escape from her house and came to us. She told us and later the SSP that she kept quiet for a long time but could not hold on any longer as the family began assaulting her and forced her to convert. They even made her change her name to Heena,” Dungar said.

Sardhana police station house officer Dilip Kumar said that the FIR was registered against the husband under the IPC sections for rape, assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty and cheating, among others.

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