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This week a Punjabi Hindu woman filed a case against her husband and in-laws after eight years of their marriage. This woman was promised a marriage under the special marriage act but was later persuaded to recite ‘Kalma’ and have a ‘Nikah’ in the first place. She was asked to prove her love to her husband by accepting Islam.
Within a year all her Stree-Dhan was kept as mortgage to get loans which were never repaid. She was harassed by her father-in-law, assaulted by her husband, and abused by her mother-in-law. They called her Kaffir, and forced her daughter to wear Hijab and get Islamic education.
The incident came to light after the victim’s father Raajesh Kapur posed details about his daughter, Vani Kapur’s marriage with Faisal Khan and their struggle to register a case against the perpetrators on June 3. Following his Tweet, the Gautam Buddha Nagar police registered an FIR on June 5. However, the accused are yet to be arrested.
A First Information Report, was registered at the Beta-2 police station of the Greater Noida district on June 5. Organiser has copy of the FIR:
The victim, Vani in her complaint told the police that, she was married to Faizal Khan on November 23, 2015, a cloth merchant staying at the Sukhdev Vihar in Delhi. Vani is the mother of a 6-year-old daughter and filed this FIR after being tortured and harassed for years, followed by a breach of her trust as they sold off all her ‘Stri-Dhan’. Faisal and his family tortured her to follow Islamic religious practices and dowry.
Vani met Faisal back in 2008 while she was pursuing her MBA from ICFAI-Gurgaon. Although Faisal dropped out of the course within a semester, she met him once during college. Upon completion of her degree, she joined her father’s business in 2010.
In 2011, she received a friend request from Faisal on Facebook, and as he was her classmate she accepted it. Soon they began talking, Faisal asked about everything from her likes, dislikes, family, friends and religious beliefs. He portrayed himself as a secular man who believes in all religions equally.
Over the period he cajoled Vani and proposed in 2012. She said, she will be interested in a relationship only if it has a future and that she is not interested in just hook-ups, to which he readily agreed. He told Vani that he has two siblings Seemab and Sanian with two of his cousins Shiraz and Shahbaz who used to stay around.
When Vani asked him to talk to his parents he first ignored but later said, his father has agreed to the relationship. At this point, Vani told the police that, she since the beginning of their relationship Vani made it very clear to Faisal that she believes in Sanatan Darma and follows all Hindu religious practices, which Faisal always accepted. He even joined her to different temples, including their Kul Devi temple, the Kalka Mata temple.
After their relationship and the trust intensified, Vani told her parents about Faizal to which her family said a strict, no. They refused to entertain any such relationship, she added.
On the other hand, Faisal introduced Vani to his parents, one day he took her to Mohan Nagar at his father’s factory. Faisal’s father said, he accepts the alliance but they need to talk and reach a common consensus as they belong to different religious backgrounds.
A few days later Faisal’s brother and sister-in-law met Vani at GIP Mall, Noida. His elder brother is Seemab and his wife, Saba Khan. They asked shocking questions to Vani like, what attracted her towards his brother and that she will have to convert to Islam before marriage, which will only be a formality. They asked her to convince her parents about the same. They repeatedly talked about their culture and values in that conversation.
When Vani returned home and told them about conversion to her parents they said, ‘What is the need of conversion if this is a love marriage?’. A few days later, Faisal connected her to his father who gave her tips on how to convince her parents for conversion. He believed, Punjabi’s holding big businesses are rigid in their stand” so he advised her to remain firm and that he would gradually give in and accept the conversion too since it was just a formality.
Vani added further, “All this while I was baffled and perplexed that if love is there why was there a need to convert, however, I was always manipulated by saying that this is a mere formality”.
By this time Vani found out the two cousin brothers Faisal had introduced her with were actually his real brothers and out of one had married a Paujabi woman who accepted Islam before Nikah. She was told again and again directly or indirectly that the Hindu-converted daughter-in-law of theirs is great and that she has now attuned herself to Islam by embracing it wholeheartedly.
Vani as stated in the FIR told her in-laws that the only reason she would ever accept Islam will be her love for Faisal and their assurance that they will allow her to practice her religion without any restrictions. Despite her parents, rigid stand she convinced them for the alliance.
Her parents suggested the duo should get married under the Special Marriage Act, to which Vani thought she will convert after marriage to make fulfil her in-law’s wish. In the beginning, Faisal’s family agreed but later on they started shifting the dates. When Vani’s lawyer reached their office, they shouted at him saying they will only get it done through ‘Nikah’.
After Rounds and rounds of discussions Vani’s parents eventually gave up as she was manipulated enough and was blindly in love with Faizal and accepted that at the end of the day, love will transcend all the boundaries and families will eventually come to terms with it.
After this discussion, Faisal’s mother called Vani to meet her. She called her at cafe coffee day in new friend’s Colony community centre market. When they met, she asked Vani about her parents’ intentions and also professed the greatness of Islam and that it is far more pure and pious than any other religion.
She also made a statement, “agar tumhara pyar gehra hai toh tumhe yeh krna hoga, ab tum dikhao ki tum Faizal se kitna pyar krti ho”. She also went on to the extent of showing that this was a mere ceremony and that love demands sacrifice.
Vani was married to Faisal on 23-11-2015 but two weeks before the marriage, Faisal came to pick her up in the name of wedding shopping. He took her to a Qazi in Chandni Chowk who made her sign a document that said, she was wilfully converting to Islam.
The same day, she was taken to Patiala House District Court to some lawyer’s chamber who made her again sign some documents and said congratulations on embracing Islam and that ‘I now stand as a Muslim subject’. Under these strenuous circumstances, she finally got married on 23 November.
Before the wedding, there were several ceremonies to be organised and on one such maiyon ceremony on 18-11-2023 her mother-in-law handed over a hefty list of articles to her parents that they should be giving during the wedding so as to uphold the family honour.
The function was organised as per the demands and irrespective of the previous gifts and money Vani’s family gave to Faizal for shopping, they gifted one gold set to her mother-in-law, one gold chain to her father-in-law, gold pendent set to her sister-in-law, gold earrings each to 3 sisters-in-law, Redo watch to Faizal. Rs 51000 cash to Faizal, 31000 to parents, 11000 to sister and each bother, along with many other things; all these being part her my dowry.
Prior to marriage, Faizal’s father used to quote repeatedly on different occasions that “humaare yahaan toh jamadar bhi beti ki shaadi pe bed aur dajeh ka saara samaan deta hai”. This clearly indicated that they were expecting huge dowry in terms of household items, clothes and jewellery among other things. Marriage was solemnized in Crown Plaza Hotel, Greater Noida, and the complete expense was borne by Vani’s father. Her mother-in-law took her jewellery, cash and everything but never returned.
Vani quoted in the FIR, “My world turned upside down ever since I got married and to my horror when the walima took place at Rampur, I was offered rather forced Infront of all the relatives to eat beef kebabs to which I vehemently denied that I am a vegetarian. I was joked and laughed at and my mother and sister-in-law categorically stated that I will now have to learn cooking non-veg-and eat if I have embraced this religion.”
She added, after the marriage she has mostly been starved by merely depending on lentils or basic curries and despite her severe protest to use different separate spoons, deliberately same spoon was used to serve daal and non–veg.
On the walima, Vani’s brother and sister-in-law came with heavy gifts and cash, which was taken by Faizal the very next day stating his debit card was not working.
Vani listed some instances of acute physical and mental torture by her in-laws and family as, they took all her jewellery in April 2016 gifted by her parents amounting to more than 35 Lakhs on the pretext that his factory is undergoing a huge loss and that he wishes to take a loan.
All her jewellery one by one was put or collateral at Muthoot Finance which she got to know in February 2023 after going to the branch concerned that all her stridhan has been auctioned debts were not paid by her husband on 11 December 2021. The same was never informed to her.
In March 2017, Vani got to know that she was expecting and despite that, she was put to all kinds of torture without any support. She cooked meals for the entire family, and did all big to menial tasks without any support and due to this on 1st April 2017, she encountered severe stomach ache and bleeding. When she called up her husband Faisal he said “natak karne k zaroorat nahi hai, tumhara toh roz ka hai ye. Rest karo, theek hoajaege thodey der mein“. Due to this extreme apathy, she called his father who at that time came and took her to holy family hospital. There doctors declared that she had a miscarriage. After the discharge, her parents were asked to take Vani home for post-procedure care as it is their duty to take care of the girl in distress.
When Vani was under best rest after the procedure and her condition was not very good, her husband made sexual relations with her.
She recalled an event saying one time when she was admitted to the hospital and her father-in-law came to see her, her mother-in-law created a scene saying, Vani was trying to seduce her father-in-law despite being in a helpless situation. This was not done once but multiple times, she made bizarre allegations about her character.
Once Vani confronted her mother-in-law for this to which her father-in-law said, “sirf shauhar nahi uske poorey khandaan ke mardon ko khush rehna hi aurat ki zimmedari har”. Several innuendos and filthy jokes every now and then were cracked by him and once he also said while she was in the kitchen cooking “agar Tumko akelapan lagia hai toh mai kami kar sakta hoon”.
Once he also tried to touch her inappropriately, when she raised the alarm her husband and mother-in-law said, “tumahri hi galti hai”.
Vani was slapped and almost thrashed for refusing to ask for money from her parents at her sister-in-law’s wedding in November 2017. They gave 1.5 lakh rupees as Muh Dikhai and a gold chain to the newlywed.
In 2017, Faisal first kept Vani’s gold set as a mortgage to get loan and start a new stitching unit in Okhla, he also borrowed lakhs of rupees from Vani’s father which he never returned.
In 2018, Vani gave birth to a girl child which upset the whole family. Since then their behaviour turned even worse towards her, they stopped providing her with monthly maintenance, her parents and brother would send diapers and milk for her daughter, added Vani.
On her daughter’s first birthday, 24th June 2019, again many things were demanded, since there is a ceremony called Akika in Muslims, she and her husband had decided to do it on the day of her first birthday itself as he was avoiding doing two separate functions. Faisal kept all the ornaments brought in this ceremony as a mortgage.
One day Vani found her husband carrying two note-counting machines, as he asked her to get ready for a family outing. When she reached the place, his Kashmiri associates, father-in-law, mother-in-law and Faisal were counting a huge some of the money. The women were kept as cover so that no one suspects anything wrong, she believes her in-laws and family were involved in money laundering.
Ever since the marriage Faisal changed a lot he would pick quarrels on small issues like lighting an agarbatti and not teaching their daughter about Quran. His family called her a ‘Kaffir’ and said, they will keep doing so until she stops believing in Hindu culture. The family were forcing her 4.5-year daughter to wear a head scarf–Hijab, which they themselves never wore. Vani was abused for not sending her daughter to an Islamic school as well.
On January 12, 2023, she left his house and moved to her parent’s place. After this a meeting was set up between them where they brought a lawyer named Khalil Ur Rehman, they said in the meeting that she cannot go to the court for divorce as she was a Muslim and she will have to go as per the Shariah law.
When asked about Vani’s jewellery they changed the topic and said, they will snatch her daughter and leave. After a few days when she went to her matrimonial house, she found that all her documents, nikahnama, conversion certificate, and daughter’s birth certificate have been removed from there along with her laptop in which many personal data was stored.
When Vani’s father went to Muthoot Finance to check upon the status of the loan he found that all her jewellery has been auctioned due to non-payment of the loan amount. Upon confronting they yelled and said, “ek rupay nahi denge, jo karna hai karo, zyada se zyada jail bhejogi or hum nikal bhi jayenge. hamare bohot sources hai Delhi or Rampur mai politically”.
As per the FIR the accused Faisal Khan, Surraiya Khan (mother-in-law), Nassir Ali Khan (father-in-law), Saman Khan (sister-in-law), Seemab, Siraz and Shahbaz Khan (brother-in-law) have been booked under IPC sections 498-A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (insulting intentionally) and sections 3 and 4 of the Prohibition of Dowry Act, 1961.
On June 8, Organiser called Vani who is currently working as a single mother to look after her daughter. She has been through a lot in the past seven years and especially since her daughter was born.
Recalling her days at her in-laws place she said, her mother-in-law would repeatedly ask her to offer Namaz every day. She being a Hindu kept one Laddo Gopal (Bhagwan Krishna) in her cupboard, as she was not allowed to keep him outside. They appointed a Qazi to teach Vani how to offer Namaz.
They left not a single chance to humiliate her and hurt her religious sentiments, she recalled how they almost force-fed her beef and put used utensils on her vegetarian dishes.
She was not allowed to work as soon as she moved to her in-law’s place. Although they never directly said it but they were never supportive and with the baby, she had to leave the job. After she moved to her father’s house in January this year she was mentally tortured to the extent that she believed committing suicide was the only rescue from this problem.
She said, back then when she was taking interviews after moving back to Noida, she would not be able to concentrate, with gap of seven long years it was tough to find a job, but luckily she has one and is looking after her daughter.
Recalling the festivals at Faisal’s house she said, they would celebrate Eid but she was not allowed to even put ferry lights outside the house on Deepawali. Forget about Puja, added Vani.
About their business she said, they fakes everything as they had a small business of scrap cloth material and they flaunted as if they own the whole factory, it was all a bluff. She says, from say one he used to ask me how many rooms you have in your house, how many vehicles do you have and many such questions. Now it all makes sense, she added.
Vani’s father Raajesh Kapur also talked to this correspondent and expressed his dissatisfaction over the complaint lodged against the accused. He said, he should have been booked under the Uttar Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, IPC sections 506, 420 and others.
To date no arrests have been made in the case, he said. After his Tweet went viral and the police called them to the station, some officials were laughing at them, which made him feel embarrassed, he added.
Well, even after everything the family is struggling to get justice.
He says we dealt with dacoits, after everything they used to say, ‘Allah se Daro..’ how about them? they were sending three vehicles full of cash. He added the family has some connections in the Aam Aadmi Party and hence, they are roaming freely.
Vaani says, “I have been through mental, physical, emotional and financial torture since the day of being in a relationship with this man, he cheated with me on every step, and now I want him to pay for his deeds”.
About the custody of her daughter, she says, she does not want to keep away her daughter from her father but he and his family have left her like a liability. They are saying, forget about the wedding and the daughter, they will get another wife for him.
The family did not share any picture of the accused saying, they are receiving death threats from the accused.
Organiser will update the report as soon as the police statement comes in the case.
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