Supreme Court (File photo)

NEW DELHI: An unusual love story, in which a Muslim man converted to Hinduism to marry a Hindu girl, came unstuck with the woman telling the Supreme Court on Monday that though she had married of her own will, she would prefer to stay with her parents.

The 33-year-old man, Mohammad Ibrahim Siddhiqui, converted to Hinduism and assumed the name Aryan Arya to marry a 23-year-old Hindu 'Jain' girl in Raipur in February. He knocked the SC doors on August 17 with a habeas corpus petition alleging that the girl's parents and a Hindu group were forcibly separating them.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had taken note of Arya's counsel Nikhil Nayyar's allegations and ordered the superintendent of police, Dhamtari, to produce the girl in court on August 27. The Chhattisgarh police brought the girl to the court on Monday. She was accompanied by her father and a relative.

Before the judges could interact with her, state advocate general Jugal Kishore Gilda told the bench that it was a sham marriage as the man had been divorced twice and had concealed this from the girl. The CJI brushed aside the submission and asked the girl to come forward. Finding that she was accompanied by her father and a relative, the CJI asked them to vacate the court to facilitate uninfluenced interaction.

The girl stood firm and repeatedly told the bench that though she had married the man, she prefers to stay with her parents. She also told the bench that she was not talking under parental pressure.

