'Bajrangi Kidnaps Girls Who Marry Non-Hindus'
News Article in the Aisan Age, Bombay Edition, Friday, 20th June 2003. Text Edited by Prakash Mascarenhas.
Bombay, June 19: Rima Rebello, who was forcibly separated from her Christian husband and whose child was forcibly aborted, has said that the chief of the Bajrang Dal in Gujarat, Babu Bajrangi, kidnaps gilrs from Bombay and keeps them as hostages in his apartment in Krishnanagar, Gujarat. Their crime — marrying men from other religions.
Rima told the Asian Age that she was kidnapped by Bajrangi and kept in the apartment along with three other girls. Rima was kidnapped after she eloped and married Anthony Rebello in April 2003. Rima made several attempts to contact Anthony and was brutally assaulted, she said. She was later taken to Babu Bajrangi's apartment. Rima said, "I was kept there along with three other gilrs who had also contracted inter-religious marriages." That was when her child was forcibly aborted.
She was later forcibly "married" to 31 year-old Bhavesh Sompuria, on 22nd May. But Rima managed to escape to Bombay on May 27 to be reunited with her husband Anthony Rebello.
Dr. Abraham Mathai, the General Secretary of the All India Christian Council, said, "Is this the way the Sangh Parivar (Hindu terrorist network) is going to treat daughters of the country who choose their life partners independently? It is a violation of a person's freedom of choice." The organisation has written to the statutory governmental body, the National Human Rights Commission to draw its attention to this crime.
The couple are now in hiding and Anthony is looking out for a job.