The Kerala High Court on Tuesday passed a fresh order directing police protection for the viral Kumbh Mela star after she alleged that she was being targeted by hate campaigns following her marriage to a Muslim man.
The order was passed on a petition filed by the woman, who said that several hate campaigns were being propagated against her across mainstream and online platforms after her marriage.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas was informed by the petitioner’s counsel that she had approached the police with a representation seeking protection after the High Court’s earlier interim order granting her police protection was vacated.
In June, the High Court had granted her interim police protection. However, earlier this month, the Court vacated the order after being informed that the police were unable to trace her.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the government pleader submitted that the petitioner was no longer residing within the jurisdiction of the Station House Officer (SHO) who was impleaded in the case. It was also submitted that she had been provided with the contact details of a woman Assistant Sub-Inspector and could approach the officer if she required urgent police protection.
Noting that the SHO within whose jurisdiction she is presently residing was not a party to the proceedings, the Court suo motu impleaded the concerned SHO as an additional respondent and directed the officer to provide her with adequate police protection.
“He can do it through your female officer,” Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas orally observed.
In her petition, the woman stated that photographs of her and her husband were burned and beaten with slippers during protests. She also alleged that she had received threatening messages from unknown persons on her mobile phone.
The woman, who came to be known as the “viral Kumbh Mela girl”, shot to nationwide fame after videos of her selling rudraksha garlands at the Maha Kumbh Mela went viral. She later came to Kerala for a film shoot, where she married her co-star.
The marriage sparked multiple controversies. Her father filed a complaint with the Madhya Pradesh Police accusing her husband of abducting her, while allegations were also raised that she was a minor at the time of the marriage. Based on the complaint, the Madhya Pradesh Police registered an FIR invoking provisions of the POCSO Act and the SC/ST Act, among other offences.
The couple subsequently approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court, alleging that her birth certificate had been forged to criminalise their interfaith marriage.
They had earlier moved the Kerala High Court seeking transit anticipatory bail. Her husband was granted one month’s transit bail to enable him to approach the courts in Madhya Pradesh for regular relief. He later sought anticipatory bail before the jurisdictional POCSO Court in Madhya Pradesh, but the plea was rejected.
The couple again approached the Kerala High Court seeking an extension of the interim bail to allow Farmaan to move the Madhya Pradesh High Court. However, the Kerala High Court declined to extend the relief.
Recently, the Madhya Pradesh High Court granted interim relief to the couple after they contended that the woman’s birth certificate had been manipulated to portray their interfaith marriage as a child marriage.
(With LiveLaw inputs)
