I am Zeenab, leave us alone: Barmer missing woman

BARMER: THE WOMAN, RITU KHANDELWAL, NOW KNOWN AS ZEENAB, SAID THAT SHE MARRIED GULZAR KHAN AND ALL DOCUMENTS RELATED TO HER MARRIAGE ARE AUTHENTIC

A new video of the 18-year-old missing Barmer woman has emerged on social media, in which she claims that she married a Kashmiri man out of free will and her parents’ allegations are untrue.

The woman, Ritu Khandelwal, now known as Zeenab, said that she married Gulzar Khan and all documents related to her marriage are authentic.

Ritu converted to Islam in December last year and married Gulzar without her family’s knowledge. In March 2018, she went missing. Her family then registered a missing person report and the police traced her to Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district. The police claimed that Ritu had converted to Islam on December 27 last year and married Gulzar on December 30, keeping her family in the dark. However, the woman continued to live with her parents until March 16 after which when she went missing.

Ritu’s parents approached the Rajasthan high court and filed a habeas corpus plea, in which they expressed concern over the safety of their daughter.

In the video, which has gone viral, Ritu is seen saying, “I am Zeenab, previous name Ritu Khandelwal daughter of Ganesh Khandelwal, wants to tell you that I got married to Gulzar Ahmad Khan on my free will. Whatever my parents are alleging is false. Gulzar never kidnapped me or harassed me. I want to live with my husband. Please don’t harass and leave us alone. Papa, I request you to let me be free to live my life peacefully.”

In the video, Ritu’s husband Gulzar Ahmad is seen sitting next to her. In another video, Gulzar too says that all allegations are untrue and appealed to everyone to leave them alone.

Refuting allegations that her marriage documents are fake, Ritu said that she signed them. She claimed that she visited Kashmir at the time of her ‘Nikaah’ with Gulzar and then she went there out of free will and nobody kidnapped her. She said that she took a flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi and then another one to Kashmir. Ritu claimed that apart from her signature, her fingerprints can be checked on the marriage documents.

Ritu also refuted her parents’ claim that she was appearing for a college exam and said that she appeared for the exam on February 20, not December 20 as claimed by her parents. She also claimed that she had given the same written statement to the Barmer police, which reached Kashmir to record her statement.

Refuting his daughter’s claim, Ganesh Khandelwal, while talking to HT, said that his daughter has been in their custody for 40 days and he feared that the accused have recorded the statement at gun point. Ganesh said that whatever Ritu has claimed in the video is false and they have evidence to prove it.

Refuting Ritu’s claim that she went to Kashmir alone via a flight from Ahmedabad, he said that Gulzar was presented at the Ahmedabad airport. He said that they have video footage of the airport in which Gulzar is seen.

Meanwhile, the Barmer police confirmed Ritu’s claim. Gagandeep Singla, Barmer SP, while talking to HT said that a team from Barmer city police station, which went there to record Ritu’s statement on Monday, met her and recorded her statement.