The Moradabad police on Sunday filed a case of gang rape against five people after a woman claimed that she was pushed to do “nikah halala” and marry her father-in-law after he had allegedly raped her, PTI reported. The police filed a case against the woman’s father-in-law, her husband, his uncle, and two clerics.
The practice of “nikah halala” bars a man from remarrying his former wife unless she has married another man, consummated that marriage and divorced him. The woman is also expected to observe a separation period called “iddat” before she reconciles with her first husband. A case is currently listed in the Supreme Court challenging the practice of polygamy and “nikah halala”.
Bareilly Zone Additional Director General of Police Prem Prakash said the woman got married in December 2014. A year later, her in-laws allegedly asked her to leave the house. In January 2016, the woman registered a police case against her in-laws, accusing them of harassing her. By the end of the year, the families reached a compromise and the woman returned to her in-laws’ house, he said.
Once she was back, the five men named in the complaint forced her to undergo “nikah halala” on the basis that the couple had divorced. The clerics then forced the woman to marry her father-in-law for “nikah halala”, who raped her and then divorced her.
The woman alleged she was later raped by her husband, became pregnant, and delivered a child at her maternal home in October 2017. She also claimed that she and her family were receiving death threats after they submitted a complaint to the district magistrate.
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