Man arrested for marrying girl by hiding religious identity, pressuring her to convert

Dehradun, Sep 6 (PTI) A man was arrested in Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district on Saturday on charges of marrying a Hindu girl by hiding his religious identity and then pressuring her to convert to Islam and harassing her for dowry.

According to the complaint filed by the girl, the man named Monish created a fake profile on a matrimonial site, introducing himself as "Manish Chaudhary, son of Amit Chaudhary" and married her in December 2024 according to Hindu customs.

Later she came to know that her husband is actually Monish, son of Irshad Ahmed, a resident of Meerut, who was currently living in Dineshpur in Udham Singh Nagar district.

Investigations also found that Monish was already married to a Muslim girl.

After his marriage to the Hindu girl, he and his family started demanded Rs 2 lakh in cash, a car and gold jewellery from her family as dowry and mounted pressure on her to convert.

She was beaten and abused when she protested, the complaint said.

Police registered an FIR and arrested Monish from Gayatri Villa, Jayanagar under Dineshpur police station area, SSP Manikant Mishra said. He has been booked under sections 69 (sexual intercourse by deceitful means), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the BNS.

The investigation into the case has been handed over to Sub-Inspector Rajni Goswami, the SSP said.

The girl, a resident of Nanakmatta, also told the police that Monish and his family members beat her and threw her out of the house on February 21. He and his family also tried to forcefully feed her non-vegetarian food.

Pressure was put on her by her in-laws to convert and she was threatened with death if she complained.

Monish confessed to his crime during interrogation, the police said, adding he admitted that he created a fake profile on the portal and got married under the name Manish Chaudhary. PTI ALM ZMN