Bhopal/Khandwa: A 36-year-old Hindu man from Rajasthan was allegedly beaten to death by his Muslim wife’s family over their inter-faith marriage, in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district earlier this week, police said on Wednesday.
The victim, Rajendra Saini (36), was a resident of Jaipur and used to work as a labourer. According to the police, he married Amreen Khan (20), a resident of Singot village in Khandwa, in 2021.
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Three members of Amreen’s family – her father Mumtaz Khan (55), mother Munni Khan (52) and brother Salman Khan (19) – have been booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), police said.
The alleged incident took place on Monday when Rajendra visited his wife’s house.
“Rajendra Saini came to Khandwa two years ago in April 2021 and met Amreen Khan while working on a construction site. They later got married at a Jaipur court and started living there. Meanwhile, Amreen’s family filed a missing complaint at Singot police station,” sub-inspector (SI) Hari Krishan Soni, who is also the investigating officer, said.
Soni added that police later brought the couple from Jaipur to Khandwa after tracking them using their mobile phones’ locations.During interrogation in the missing person complaint, the woman said she married Rajendra out of her own free will and she was happy with her husband, the SI said.
{{/usCountry}}Soni added that police later brought the couple from Jaipur to Khandwa after tracking them using their mobile phones’ locations.During interrogation in the missing person complaint, the woman said she married Rajendra out of her own free will and she was happy with her husband, the SI said.
{{/usCountry}}“Two months ago, Amreen came to Khandwa to meet her family on their invitation. She could not go back as her family was not letting her leave so Rajendra came to take her home. Ameern’s family physically assaulted him twice. On Monday, he again went to take Amreen back but her family beat him up brutally. Rajendra then approached the police and asked for help,” Soni said.
“He was admitted to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries on Tuesday evening,” he added.
Rajendra’s brother, Kishore Saini, alleged the deceased had sought police protection but in vain. “My brother was beaten to death. He had asked for police protection several times but police did not pay any attention to his plea. He was killed for marrying a Muslim woman. They should be punished under stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” he said.
In the statement registered with police, Amreen said, “Rajendra used to beat her up in intoxicated state. The family was unhappy with this and that’s why they didn’t allow her to go back. On Monday too, he came in intoxicated state and misbehaved with family.”
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However, she said she didn’t about physical assault by her family.
Khandwa superintendent of police (SP) said a first information report (FIR) has been registered against three members of Amreen’s family under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.
Section 302 (murder) will be added after a report of the post-mortem, being conducted at Khandwa medical college, is released, Shukla said.