Proposed inter-faith marriage triggers tension in Meerut, saffron outfit convenes ‘Mahapanchayat’

Lucknow: A proposed inter-faith marriage has triggered tension in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut town with the saffron outfits forcing the owner of the wedding venue to cancel the booking and threatening to hold a ‘mahapanchayat’ to deliberate on the matter.

In a precautionary measure aimed at thwarting the ‘mahapanchyat’, the police on Friday restricted the movement of All India Hindu Suraksha Sangathan president Sachin Sirohi and kept him under ‘house arrest’.

Security personnel were also deployed at the wedding venue after the saffron leaders announced that they would hold their meeting there. Police personnel were also deployed at the house of the woman, sources said.

‘’We will not allow a Hindu girl to marry a Muslim man under any circumstances,’’ Chaudhary Dharmendra Malik, the regional chief of the outfit said in Meerut.

He said that the organisation would hold the ‘mahapanchayat’ on the road if the administration did not allow it to be held at the wedding venue.

According to the sources, the marriage of the couple was scheduled to be solemnised on Friday but it was cancelled after the owner of the wedding venue cancelled the booking allegedly under pressure from the saffron outfits.

While the uncle of the woman said that he was against the marriage, the woman said that she was an adult and was ‘free’ to choose her partner.

She also claimed that she was a ‘Buddhist’ and not a Hindu and therefore the saffron outfits had no say in her marriage.

Police said that they would not allow the ‘mahapanchayat’ and would take action against anyone who tried to disturb law and order.