Witnesses and police told local media that the couple had come to the high court to seek protection and security because the girl belonged to the upper Brahmin caste while the boy belonged to the socially underprivileged Dalit community. They had claimed in their petition that there was a parental objection to their marriage.
The kidnapping took place shortly before the high court was to open for business at 11 a.m. local time. Witnesses said the couple were pushed into a black car and whisked away before anyone could react. Initially, witnesses revealed that the car’s license plate displayed the word “Chairman”, suggesting that it belonged to someone in a position of authority.
Upon further investigation, the police said they had traced and found the vehicle used for the kidnapping to the city of Kaushambi.
According to reports, Sakshi Mishra, the Brahmin daughter of Rajesh Mishra, a lawmaker representing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the city of Bareilly in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and her husband Ajitesh, a member of the Dalit community, had approached the Allahabad High Court to seek both protection and security from their respective families. They said they wanted to be able lead a peaceful life.
A single judge bench of the Allahabad High Court was to hear the case on Monday. Justice Siddharth Verma was to hear the plea of the now kidnapped couple at 11 a.m. this morning.
The couple had earlier approached the court of Justice Y.K. Srivastava on Thursday (11 June) for a quick hearing of their appeal, but when they failed to show up the judge fixed 15 July as the next hearing date in the court of Justice Siddharth Verma.
Prior to their kidnapping, both Sakshi and Ajitesh had sought legal protection as they anticipated a threat to their lives from their unhappy relatives.
Sakshi’s father, Rajesh Mishra, said in a statement that he has no problem with his daughter getting married to Ajitesh, but Sakshi was unconvinced by her father's statement.
Media reports quoted police in Bareilly as saying that they are coordinating with their counterparts in Allahabad and in India’s capital New Delhi in searching for the missing couple.
