Through thick and thin
When Rikta married her cousin Mamun, all she wanted was to have a happy life together.
But in the last year and a half, the couple has gone through quite a lot. She was tricked into getting a divorce, saw her husband jailed, remarried him after he came out of prison. They are now implicated in a "false" case.
As a last resort, the couple held a press conference at the capital's Crime Reporters' Association on Sunday, asking everyone to just leave them alone.
According to Tania Nasrin Rikta, 19, and Abdullah Al Mamun, 25, Rikta's mother did not accept the marriage, and took her signature on a blank paper, using it to file for divorce. She then filed a case under ICT Act against Mamun with Shashi Bhushan Police Station in Bhola that saw him serve a five-month jail sentence.
Undeterred, the couple remarried on August 7, after he came out of jail, but Rikta's mother again filed a case with Dhaka's Tejgaon Police Station, this time accusing Mamun of abducting her daughter.
“My mother mentioned that my husband and his family members abducted me. I was not abducted; I left my house and married Mamun,”
Rikta told reporters. “I told police that I got married to him willingly but they did not take my words into consideration. Now we are implicated in a false case,” she added.
Her brother-in-law Abdullah al Mansur was arrested by Tejgaon police and is now in jail in the case, she said.
“We just want to live on our own,” she said, pleading with authorities concerned not to harass them anymore.
Mamun's mother Fatema Begum, present on the occasion, said there was no previous enmity between the two families. “I don't know why they are not accepting the marriage,” she said.
Mazharul Islam, officer-in-charge of Tejgaon Police Station, admitted that a case was filed and an arrest was made. “If they got married willingly, they should appear before a court and say it there,” he said.
Rikta's mother could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.
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