Muslim man converts to Hinduism to be with wife; she ditches him and goes back to parents

The drama surrounding a Chhattisgarh-based Muslim man, who converted to Hinduism to marry a girl fizzled out on Monday when the girl told the Supreme Court that she would return to her parents.

The Court noted the same and allowed the woman, identified as Anjali Jain, to go with her parents. It modified the Chhattisgarh High Court order to that extent.

Ibrahim Siddiqui had told the court that he had adopted Hinduism to marry the Jain, but her family, along with radical groups had separated them. He had changed his name to Aryan Arya to marry the girl and converted in February this year. He and Jain married at an Arya Samaj temple in Raipur on February 25.

Jain returned to her parents’ home at Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh but did not inform her parents about her marriage. Siddiqui and Jain had hoped that could eventually disclose the marriage to the family members.

However, Anjali’s parents got to know about her marriage with the appellant from some outside sources. On June 30, she left home, but on her way to meet Siddiqui was accosted by some policemen who in their complaint said that she wanted to live with her parents and not with Siddiqui. Siddiqui, however, maintains that the police made an error and in reality she wanted to live with him. The case then went to the Chhattisgarh High Court, which told Jain, despite being 23 years old, that she had the option of either living with her parents or in a hostel.

The case was then taken to the Supreme Court. During the last hearing, the bench comprising CJI Deepak Mishra and Justice DY Chandchud had sought a reply from the Chhattisgarh government and directed the copy of the petition to be given to the state government's lawyer.