Vaishnavi and Syed fell in love around a year ago, Syed says. Earlier this year, they decided to get married so that they could be together. Though Vaishnavi is a few years younger than Syed, both are adults.
“Vaishnavi told me that we should do a court marriage. So I told her to speak to her family first. She spoke to her brother, who himself had done a court marriage. Her brother gave her the contact number of his lawyer,” Syed told The Quint.
Vaishnavi then spoke to the lawyer, a person named Akshay Karan, who promised her that he would arrange for their court marriage. According to Syed, the lawyer asked for an advance of Rs 5000, which he duly transferred.
Vaishnavi and Syed travelled nearly four hours by bus to Bhopal to register their marriage under the Special Marriage Act on 7 February. Little did they know that they were walking into a trap.
“After we reached the court, the lawyer took our documents, got them signed, and took another ₹35,000 from me. Then he said,…
