UP woman returns post interfaith marriage in Karnataka, sent to shelter

MEERUT/BAREILLY: When Sanjana, 21, disappeared from a coaching institute in Bareilly on July 13, her family was thrown into turmoil.

Her father, Dinesh Kumar, filed an FIR three days later, alleging that the accused had lured her away.

The young woman returned to Bareilly on Tuesday amid high drama after tying the knot in Karnataka with her childhood friend and now husband, Arshad Khan, 22.

he was armed with a high court order giving her protection" from coercive police action. Police have, however, now sent her to a women's shelter against her wishes. Arshad, though, is still in hiding.

As search intensified for the couple, who had been in love since their teenage days, videos emerged in which Sanjana made serious allegations against her family, including an "attempt to murder her".

In one such purported video, she could be heard saying, "I have been in love with him for six years and now I am a major and I want to live with him but my family is against it.

My father, brother and mother beat me up and even tried to choke me to death on July 12 (a day before the disappearance). No one came forward to save me. I am married to Arshad and cannot live without him. No one abducted me."

Arshad assists his father in a kirana shop, while Sanjana is a BSc graduate preparing for competitive exams. They both lived in the same locality in Bareilly where their love blossomed. On July 18, the couple was "traced" to Lakshmi Nagar. Investigation officer, sub-inspector Rinku Kumar, raided a hotel where their register entry was found, but he returned empty-handed and was subsequently suspended for "dereliction of duty".