Police security to couple separated by panchayat diktak

ROHTAK: Two days after a newly-wed couple was separated by a community panchayat, the police provided security to the groom's family in Joli village of the district. They also started an inquiry into the matter on Thursday.
In their police complaint, the couple - Anil Mehra and Seema Sabarwal - said they had been separated due to pressure from the community panchayat which objected to their marriage on Tuesday."We want to live together but the diktat has made our lives miserable. We fear for our lives and need police protection," Anil told media persons after meeting the SSP in Sonipat.
The panchayat had issued a diktat on Tuesday, ordering the couple to live separately. While Seema was made to return to her parents in Umedgarh village of the district, the groom's family was slapped a fine of Rs 1,100.
Sonipat SSP Arun Singh said the couple had been provided police security. "Gohana DSP Yashpal Singh has been assigned the inquiry into the matter and the police would take action against anyone who is found guilty of violation of any law," he said.
The sarpanch of a neighbouring Lath village, who attended the wedding, claimed that the decision was taken with consent of families of the bride and the groom, who agreed to maintain the social custom of brotherhood. He explained that people of Mehra and Sabarwal gotras live in Joli village hence they maintained a relationship of brotherhood and matrimonial ties are socially prohibited between the two gotras.
Anil's father Khel Singh said that he had taken a loan for the marriage and spent around Rs 2.50 lakh on it. "Our family was against the break up," he said. Expressing similar sentiments, bride's father Dalip Singh added, "We were helpless before the decision of the community panchayat."