UP couple seek protection

Faced with alleged threat to their lives from a Khap Panchayat, a newly wed couple from western Uttar Pradesh has approached a Delhi court for protection. They feared they might be killed in the name of family honour, reports Sumit Saxena.

Faced with alleged threat to their lives from a Khap Panchayat, a newly wed couple from western Uttar Pradesh has approached a Delhi court for protection. They feared they might be killed in the name of family honour.

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Sodan (23), who is from Chapnora village in Meerut, married Sobha (22), a resident of neighbhouring village Kunda, on May 10 in Delhi.

The families are opposed to the marriage because they belong to the same mavi gotra (sub-caste) of Gujjar caste. The couple is on the run since May 10. Sobha’s family has lodged a criminal complaint in Falawda police station in Meerut accusing Sodan of kidnapping their minor daughter.

“I am a major. I married Sodan out of my own free will,” Sobha told Additional Sessions Judge Savita Birbal. She also showed her voter identity card, which mentioned she was 22.

She said she wants the court to restrain the UP police from conducting raids on Sodan’s friends, who provided temporary shelter to the couple after they got marries. The couple also wanted the court to direct the Delhi Police to provide them protection.

However, the court declined to grant them any relief, saying it did not have jurisdiction to entertain their plea.

The couple’s counsel, J.P. Bansal, said he would now approach the Delhi High Court to save the couple from Khap Panchayat.