U’khand HC directs cops to probe threat perceived by 76yo who married woman, 43

Dehradun: Uttarakhand high court (HC) has directed Haridwar SSP to assess the threat faced by 76-year-old Shafik Hasan and his wife Shayra Bano, 43, and “to take appropriate steps if any danger to their life and liberty was found”. The court also directed the concerned SHO to “call all the three respondents, including Hasan’s son from an earlier marriage, and advise them not to take the law into their own hands”.Justice Rakesh Thapliyal passed the order on Friday while disposing of a petition filed by the couple seeking police protection and a restraint against private respondents -- Hasan’s son and Bano’s two brothers-in-law -- from “interfering in their personal life”.The petitioners told the court that they got married on March 11, 2023, in Moradabad and had been living together since. They said a girl was born from their wedlock. Bano was a divorcee and Hasan married her with the consent of his earlier wife, they stated.The court noted that no specific date of divorce was mentioned in the petition and that the consent of Hasan’s earlier wife was not placed on record. Bano, on her part, said that “her earlier husband had given her triple talaq, verbally”.The couple produced their marriage certificate, which showed registration on March 24, 2026, and feared a threat from Naushad and Dilshad, brothers of the earlier husband of Bano, and from Gulsher, 30, son of Hasan. The petitioners said they had submitted a representation to SSP, Haridwar, on April 10, but no action was taken.The state counsel, however, did not dispute the petitioners’ age and submitted that, since the marriage stood registered, the SSP should examine the threat claim. Accepting this course, the HC directed the SSP to assess the threat perception on the couple.