How a Hindu-Muslim marriage in India becomes nightmare for couple's families

Rajasthan High Court orders police to lodge an FIR and investigate the case

In the Indian city of Jodhpur, an alleged ‘forced religious conversion’ and marriage has sent shockwaves for their families.

The family of Payal Singhvi, 22, who now calls herself Aarifa, said they had never imagined she could walk out on them one day and refuse to recognise her family. The man’s family, on the other hand, locked itself up at home and under the glare of Jodhpur’s right-wing organisations, refusing to speak, said The Indian Express report.



“When she was presented in the high court Wednesday, she refused to recognise us. How can a girl with doting parents, and who used to sit in the temple and sing kirtan (devotional song) to Sai Baba daily with her father, do that? She has been brainwashed,” Payal’s brother Chirag said.

Payal used to accompany her father in devotional songs at Hindu temples, as dozens move their heads in devotion. But on Wednesday, when Payal, now Aarifa, arrived at the court in an abaya and hijab, she reportedly refused to acknowledge her parents.

“She could never bear to see her parents crying. How is it that she didn’t flinch when they were weeping, literally at her feet in the court?” her brother asked.

In his complaint to police, he also alleged that his sister had told their mother that Faiz Modi, her husband, had clicked her photographs and had been blackmailing her.

“It is a case of love jihad, and the modus operandi has similarities with the Blue Whale game and Islamic State recruitment,” said Chirag’s friend Somendra.

“In the online game, one carries out acts against their will as they are threatened that something bad will happen to their family. And how does a person go on to join IS and is ready to blow himself up? Because they are brainwashed. That is the case here, too.”

They are convinced that Payal could not have fallen for Faiz, with whom she had allegedly eloped on October 25. That was six months after Aarifa had converted and married him, as per the documents submitted in court.

“There is not a single attribute about the boy that anyone can find attractive; he does not even have a job,” Chirag said. Their father is a pujari, he said, and they also run a mobile-phone shop. Payal had got a Bcom degree this year and was preparing for the Rajasthan Administrative Services when she went “missing” on October 25.

“He [Faiz] was a year junior to her, and she complained that she was being harassed and stalked by him, so we spoke to his father Aijaz Modi, who apologised to us,” Chirag added.

He said that their parents, especially their mother, are “too disturbed” to speak to anyone.



It was on his petition that Rajasthan High Court asked Jodhpur police to lodge an FIR and investigate the case. An FIR was also lodged against Faiz for inducing a woman to compel her into marriage, wrongful confinement, stalking and extortion.

The court had also sent Payal to a shelter home for women for a week, and prohibited “either party” to meet her. Chirag said the police initially refused to register an FIR after his sister submitted an affidavit claiming she had converted to Islam. “It is a false affidavit,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, at Faiz’s home in Jodhpur, his family has refused to interact with anyone on the case.

This story originally appeared on The Indian Express.