Sambhal: A woman has alleged that she was forced to undergo ‘nikah halala’ and marry her father-in-law who raped her, following which a case was registered against five people, including her husband, police said on Sunday.

Apart from her husband and father-in-law, the others booked include her husband's uncle and two 'unidentified' clerics, a senior police official said.

Bareilly zone additional director general of police Prem Prakash said the woman, a resident of Moradabad district, got married on December 7, 2014. “She alleged that she was thrown out of her in-laws’ house on December 25, 2015,” he said.

The woman then registered a case against her in-laws on January 3, 2016, for harassing her. But on December 24 the same year, both the sides reached an agreement and she went back to her in-laws’ house, Prakash said.

The woman in her complaint said at her in-laws’ place, her husband, his father, his uncle and two clerics claimed that as she was out of the house, they had a divorce and she would have to undergo ‘nikah halala’.

Under 'nikah halala', a man cannot remarry his former wife unless she marries another man, consummates the marriage, gets a divorce and observes a period of separation called 'iddat'.

The victim claimed that she had objected to the practice but the two clerics, brought by her husband's uncle, said she would be married to her father-in-law for the process.

The woman alleged that she was later locked in a room with her father-in-law who raped her. He divorced her the next morning but she was then raped by her husband, leading to pregnancy, police said quoting the FIR.

She said she left for her parents’ house where she gave birth to a boy on October 6, 2017. She alleged that she had submitted an application in this regard with the district magistrate, following which she and her family were receiving death threats from her husband and a few clerics.

The ADGP said, “A case of gang rape was registered against the woman's husband, father-in-law, uncle-in-law and two unknown clerics on September 1 and investigations are underway.”