OKARA, April 21: Medical student Aurna who was allowed to go with her husband on Friday told civil judge/magistrate Malik Mudassar Farid Khokhar that two provincial ministers were supporting her parents against her.

The final year student of a private medical university in Hyderabad, 24-year-old Aruna, the daughter of a retired sessions judge based in Sahiwal, fell in love with Moazzam, a software engineer working with the PTCL, and tied the knot with him.

Strongly opposing the match, Aruna’s parents pressed her to seek separation and return home. On her refusal, her father Ata Muhammad got registered a case u/s 16/7/1979 of the Hudood laws and 363 PPC with Renala Khurd police station, alleging that “I was going to my maternal village 13/1-AL near Renala Khurd when I saw Moazzam, his brother Junaid, Shahid and two unidentified accomplices taking away my daughter.” After this case, Okara police rushed to Hyderabad and arrested the accused who were produced before the judge on Friday afternoon. Police requested the judge to send the accused to jail.

In the open court where dozens of lawyers, journalists and social workers were present, Aruna in the company of her counsel Abdul Alf Saleem told the court that she had contracted marriage in August 2005 with Moazzam with her free will and informed her parents (about the marriage) after a few days.

“My mother and aunt arrived in Hyderabad and we all went to the house my uncle Farhan (based in Hyderabad) where I briefed them in detail.” Taking a drink there (offered by her uncle’s family), she fell unconscious and was in Sukkhur when she returned to her senses.

“I was brought to Sahiwal where I was beaten up for three days to seek divorce from Moazzam but I kept on resisting. From there my family moved to Islamabad to where again I was pressurised for four months to get dissolution of marriage but I refused. Somehow I managed to reach the Pir Wadhai bus stand in Rawalpindi to catch a bus for Multan for onward journey to Hyderabad and was with Moazzam the next day.” On April to 19 Okara police reached Hyderabad to arrest her and Moazzam. “I contracted marriage with my free will. No body abducted or raped me. The case is fabricated. I want to live with my husband,” she said when the judge wanted to know to whom she wanted to accompany right now.

Aruna’s father Atta Muhammad told the court through his counsel Malik Maqbool Shakir that Aruna had filed a case of dissolution of marriage in the court of senior civil judge Muhammad Shafique on the grounds of ‘Khula’.

The court, he said, had decreed in favour of Aruna against her husband Moazzam. “But Moazzam with the help of his brother Junaid abducted my daughter. After the dissolution of marriage their living together was not legal.”

Aruna however denied having filed any suit for the dissolution of marriage. After these arguments, the court adjourned the matter for some three hours.

During this period, human rights workers — Asghar Hussain Hammad, district PPP president Mubeen Ashraf Khan Sohna and Arshad Iqbal — called on Aruna and patted her for her courage.

When the court met again, the judge rejected all charges against Aruna, her husband Moazzam and brother-in-law Junaid and set them free.