The Telegraph
December 29, 2005
LOVE-MARRIAGE SCOURGE LABEL ON RIOT ACCUSED
by Chandrima S. Bhattacharya
Mumbai, Dec. 28: At parents’ bidding, girls are being kidnapped, abused
and forced to remarry for “straying” from their community. Not in any
remote village, but in the heart of Mumbai, according to a petition.
Last Thursday, Bombay High Court issued notices to the parents of four
girls from the Gujarati Patel community, who had secretly married
outside their community.
Soon after marriage, the parents allegedly arranged for the girls to be
forcibly taken to the Naroda locality in Ahmedabad, where they live in
an environment of physical and mental abuse, till they promise to marry
a Patel.
The man behind this is allegedly the mastermind behind the Naroda-Patiya
massacre during the Gujarat riots — Babu Bajrangi. Eighty-three people
were killed in Naroda.
Bajrangi and his organisation, Navchetan Sangathan, have taken it on
themselves to protect the “honour” of their community, for a fee.
Early this month, four young men — two from Ghatkopar in central Mumbai
— moved a petition in the high court, alleging their wives, all from the
Patel community, were kidnapped by Bajrangi’s men and taken forcibly to
Ahmedabad.
They said Bajrangi, a Patel who spearheads a movement to keep his
community pure by not letting girls marry into another caste or
community, charges parents lakhs to take their daughters “into his care”.
The court has also sent notices to police forces in Gujarat and
Maharashtra, to whom the men have repeatedly turned to. Responses have
to be filed by January 23.
Freelance graphic designer Ajay Nikam, a Maharashtrian, was in love with
his neighbour Geeta, a Patel. They lived in Ghatkopar. They knew the
opposition they would face from her family and married in secret in
November 2003. They stayed in their respective homes for a few months,
but then she ran away and came to live with him. Then their nightmare began.
Ajay said on November 30, 2004, Geeta’s mother called her home for a
visit to the doctor, but she did not come back. “That night she was
directly taken to Ahmedabad,” he said.
As he looked for her everywhere, he started to get calls from Ahmedabad.
He realised she was trying to call him. Ajay traced the number to an STD
booth and found out the address. It was a Naroda locality. He went there
and found that the entire locality was under the “protection” of Bajrangi.
He also found out that Geeta, along with several other girls, were being
detained at BF 6, Bhagyodaya Society, behind Krishna Talkies.
As he wandered in the area, he was picked up by Bajrangi himself. He was
beaten up and forced to sign papers consenting to a divorce. He came
back to Mumbai and for a year ran from police to court. But there was no
ray of hope.
He met his wife briefly when Mumbai police presented her in a court
here. “She lives with about 10 other girls in the Naroda house and all
are tortured severely,” Ajay said.
“I have written to the police commissioner, the chief justice and the
home secretary in Gujarat, naming Bajrangi, but there has been no
response. “I have been told that Bajrangi has ‘rescued’ 560 other Patel
girls before and I am the 561st case.”
The story of 22-year-old Raju Medige, Ajay’s friend from Ghatkopar, is
eerily similar. So are those of Abhijit Sonavane from Pune and Prashant
Samudre from Sangli, who joined hands when they heard Ajay and Raju had
sought Teesta Setalvad’s help. The activist has taken up the case on
behalf of the NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace.
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