Court hands Hindu woman to family after alleged forced conversion and marriage

LAHORE: A 21-year-old Hindu woman from Sanghar district in Sindh, who was allegedly lured into a relationship and persuaded to convert to Islam by a man from Gujranwala in Punjab, was handed back into her family’s custody after a judicial magistrate on Monday rejected a police request to shift her to a shelter home.

The woman went missing from her hometown. Sanghar police registered an FIR on the complaint of her brother.

The complainant alleged that CCTV footage from a camera installed at their residence showed some unidentified persons forcibly taking his sister, along with valuables and mobile phones, during the night between August 23 and 24.

Her family alleged that she was lured away and taken to Gujranwala, where she was pressured to convert to Islam and marry a local man, who was already married.

Officials from the Sindh Home Department informed their counterparts in Punjab about the FIR and sought assistance in recovering the woman.

Acting on the information, Eminabad police in Gujranwala recovered the woman and produced her before a judicial magistrate on Monday.

During the proceedings, the investigating officer also filed an application requesting the magistrate to send the woman to Darul Aman for “safe custody”, claiming that she was unwilling to go with her parents.

However, her lawyers opposed the police request, telling the court that she was, in fact, willing to return to her parents’ home with her real brother, who was present in court.

They said the woman also wanted to record her statement.

The magistrate ordered that the woman’s statement be recorded directly.

In her statement, given on oath, she said she wished to go with her brother to her parents’ home in of her own free will and consent.

She added that she faced no threat to her life and was under no pressure while recording her statement.

In his order, the magistrate ruled that, in view of the woman’s recorded statement, the police request to send her to Darul Aman “is hereby turned down”.

The magistrate allowed her to go with her brother, entrusting him with her safe custody and transportation back to her parents’ home in Sanghar.

Personnel from Sanghar police station in Sindh were also present in court.