Bahraich (UP), Oct 23 An 18-year-old adamant about marrying her lover climbed a mobile phone tower in a village in Uttar Pradesh on Friday morning and came down only after her marriage was solemnised via video call with the man who was hundreds of kilometres away in Mumbai.
The young woman held fort for around four hours, standing all on her own against unwilling families of both sides, as police and neighbours played negotiators.
SHO of Motipur police station Brahma Gond told PTI that Saida wanted to marry Nuruddin, 21, who is also from her village but currently in Mumbai for work.
Villagers said Nuruddin was from the Pathan community, while Saida was from the Churhihaar community. Nuruddin’s family were initially opposed to the marriage, likely due to the so-called status gap between the two communities, they said.
Police said that they received information that a young woman had climbed a mobile phone tower at 6 am on Friday. Police arrived at the scene and attempted to persuade her to come down, but she remained adamant, insisting on ‘nikah’.
A crowd gathered in the village, seeing the young woman on the tower.
She refused to come down, even when her family, the villagers and the police requested her to do so. Subsequently, police initiated discussions with the families of both parties in an effort to reach an agreement.
The SHO said that following consent of both parties, a ‘qazi’ (Muslim cleric) was summoned and contact was established via video call with Nuruddin who was in Mumbai. Once he agreed, the qazi conducted the ‘nikah’ rituals online through a video call.
Shortly after, at around 10 am, Saida climbed down from the tower.
The SHO also commended the family members and neighbours for their role in facilitating the talks required to solemnise the marriage.
“The police’s primary objective was to ensure that the young woman was brought down safely, and in this, we succeeded,” he said.
(PTI News)
