4 booked in Aligarh for promoting communal hate after inter-faith marriage

Four people have been booked for allegedly promoting communal hate following an inter-religious marriage here, police said on Tuesday.

An FIR was registered against Asiya, the bride's sister, Faizan, Mohamed Nazim and Siraj after they addressed a press conference on Sunday accusing the former mayor of Aligarh of orchestrating the marriage.

According to police, Siraj and Faizan have been arrested and sent to judicial custody.

The marriage between a Muslim woman and a Hindu man took place on Saturday.

The sister of the bride had accused former Aligarh mayor and prominent BJP leader of the district Shakuntla Bharti of allegedly pressurising the police in the matter and abetting, what she described as, "forced conversion" of her younger sister.

However, SP (city) Abhishek Kumar told reporters that the bride was an adult and had given her statement in front of a magistrate that she had married "on her own free will and there was no pressure on her".   Responding to the allegations, Bharti told media on Monday that the woman who belonged to a Muslim family was an adult and had married the Hindu man "according to Hindu customs on her own free will".   "I came into the picture only after some persons from the bride's family started threatening her for converting and marrying a Hindu man," the BJP leader said.

The police said Asiya had on August 7 filed a complaint at the Sasni Gate Police Station that her sister had "gone missing".

They also said that Asiya, in her press conference, had passed comments which could disturb the peace of the city.