On Friday, December 23, Madhya Pradesh police booked a wrestling coach for abducting a minor Muslim girl from Bhopal. Naveen Nara, a wrestling coach from Rohtak district in Haryana converted to Islam to marry his 16-year-old girl who is a Muslim wrestler. MP police claimed that Naveen was already married.
Speaking on the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Riyaz Iqbal said that “The girl’s father told us that they met Naveen in Rohtak in July at a wrestling event. Naveen began attempting to persuade them to take their daughter to Rohtak for training. In August, Naveen travelled to Bhopal to visit the girl, but the family didn’t entertain him because they didn’t like his behaviour.”
The DCP further said that the family of the girl filed a complaint at Shyamla police station accusing Naveen of abducting their daughter in a car. Following the complaint, Naveen was booked for abducting a minor.
According to the DCP, while conducting an investigation, police located Naveen’s home in Charkhidadri in Jhajjar while tracking the stolen car.
“The girl was located in Rohtak, where he had married her by converting to Islam since he was already married and she was a minor,” DCP Iqbal added.
As per a Times of India report, the couple got married as per the Islamic rituals in a Mosque at Nayagaon in Mohali.
Notably, the minor girl, citing a recent ruling of Punjab and Haryana High Court which held that a Muslim minor girl can marry a person of choice upon attaining puberty, filed a petition in Punjab and Haryana HC seeking protection for the couple from her family.
Umesh Yadav, Shyamla Hills police station in-charge said that the girl quoted the High Court’s October 28, 2022 ruling, which stated that a Muslim girl’s marriage after reaching puberty would not be invalid under section 12 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, to legalise their marriage. “We showed the court the CCTV evidence that proved he kidnapped the girl from Bhopal. On December 9, the girl was handed over to us by the court.
Despite everything, Nara was able to avoid arrest. According to a senior police official, they found the girl residing with him in Rohtak but chose not to arrest him due to the high court petition. “The girl appeared in court on the day of the hearing, and we brought her back,” the police officer added.
Notably, the girl was not willing to return to her parents and was repeatedly saying that she was not abducted. She said that she went along with Naveen and married at her own free will.
It is pertinent to mention that a woman named Jaya Phogat claiming to Naveen Nara’s first wife had filed a petition alleging that Naveen had not changed his religion while marrying the Muslim minor girl.
According to Shyamla police station inc-charge, the girl was handed over to her family members after counselling. On Friday, she recorded her statement in court that she was not abducted.
