Not learning any lesson from the tragedy of Rizwanur Rahman and its resultant nationwide protests, the police continue to interfere in marriages in West Bengal.
KOLKATA: Not learning any lesson from the tragedy of Rizwanur Rahman and its resultant nationwide protests, the police continue to interfere in marriages in West Bengal. During the last 10 days, there had been three cases, where the police tried to breach the marriage between two consenting adults.
One is a case of inter-religious marriage like that of Rizwanur and another one is of inter-caste wedding. The third one is between two persons coming from disproportionate financial background. In all the three cases, the police reacted on the basis of complaints of abduction filed by the bride’s parents.
Surprisingly, such incidents were reported at a time when the entire nation is being rocked by protests over the police role in the marriage of Rizwanur with Priyanka Todi.
Two residents of Basirhat in North 24 Parganas districts, Riya Chowdhury and Abu Selim Gaji, got married under the Special Marriage Act. However, the conservative father of Riya, Subhash Chaudhuri, filed a complaint saying Selim had abducted his daughter.
Riya and Selim went underground, but his friend S Ahmed had to face the police music for being the a witness to the marriage. Ahmed was arrested and threatened by the officers of Basirhat police station for his role.
Riya and Selim took the help of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights and the media. Police superintendent of North 24 Parganas, S Sarkar, stopped his officers from the going the extreme “Rizwanur” way.
Despite Sarkar's assurances, Selim and Riya are hesitant to go back to Selim’s residence out of fear. “My father is influential in the political, bureaucratic and police circles and can harm my husband any time,” Riya said.
In the second case, additional district magistrate Nilanjana Dasgupta is accused of threatening Sanchari Sahoo and Bibhash Bhattacharjee of Panskura in East Midnapore district after they got married. “Dasgupta, who is a close friend of my mother, had been threatening both of us and putting pressure on me to go back to my parents,” Sanchari said.
In the third case, Manoj Jaysayal and Dolly Tulsiyan, coming from families of unequal financial status, had to face police threats after their marriage. Dolly's father, an established businessman, filed abduction charges against Manoj. Manoj and Dolly were summoned to the police station again and again.
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