New Delhi: On July 31, Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad police arrested 29-year-old Akbar Khan for allegedly ‘abducting’ his 25-year-old wife, Sonika Chauhan, according to a report by The Indian Express. This comes despite Chauhan insisting several times that she and Khan have been married for three years under the Special Marriage Act, and that she had left her parents’ home on her own accord.

This is the second time in two months that Khan is being arrested for the same reason. 

On July 30, Sonika Chauhan’s father Laxman Singh Chauhan had filed a complaint at the Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad alleging that she had been kidnapped by her husband Akbar and his family in the middle of the night. Her father also alleged that Akbar’s family had been threatening his family in the days leading up to his daughter’s earlier “abduction on May 24”.

On July 31, police arrested Khan and sent Sonika Chauhan back to her parents’ house. On August 1, Ghaziabad Commissioner of Police, J. Ravinder Goud confirmed this to The Indian Express, saying that Chauhan was sent to stay with her family after the police took an undertaking from her parents.

However, Sonika Chauhan has repeatedly insisted that she left her home on her own accord both in May and now. She repeated this in a video note published by The Indian Express on July 31, saying that several people including her parents and extended family had been physically and mentally harassing her.

'I was very scared'

In her video note dated July 30, 2025, Sonika Chauhan said that she had left her home, on her own accord, because of physical and mental harassment by her family including her parents and extended relatives. She named several people in this note: her parents, Harish Karakoti, Kapil Tyagi, maternal uncle Vikram Rawat and paternal uncle Jagdish Singh Chauhan. She also took the name of Meena Bhandari, a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader and a former municipal councillor. According to evidence collected by Scroll, Bhandari was part of the mob that vandalised Chauhan and Khan’s small, next-door businesses at Ghaziabad on May 26.

“The reason for this harassment was that they wanted me to testify against my husband Akbar in court, under the POCSO Act and have him imprisoned. But I resisted this, and said that I will only present the truth in front of the magistrate,” Chauhan said in the video note published by The Indian Express on social media platform X on July 31. 

In her note, she said that despite informing the magistrate about the truth a month ago, her family continued to harass her and even threatened to kill her several times. 

“Some people also tried to coerce me into a physical relationship and I was extremely scared,” she added in the note. 

Chauhan also said that she had said that she wanted to stay with her parents despite this to ‘maintain peace’ between both families and “not create complications”. Her family, however, has been repeatedly forcing her to testify in court once again against Akbar and his family, as well as police officers that they demanded her to testify against. 

When she refused, Kapil Tyagi had threatened to kill her and even tried to do this several times, she said in her note. 

“I was very scared. I no longer want to stay with my family because my life is in danger. I am having suicidal thoughts at my house…I didn’t realise I would become the victim here because they are forcing me so much...I cannot take it anymore, that’s why I am leaving my house, with my husband,” Chauhan said in the note.

When The Indian Express asked Goud, the Commissioner of Police, about why Chauhan was sent to stay with her family when she had repeatedly insisted that she was being harassed at her home, Goud said he would check if she wished to stay at a One Stop Centre, set up to support women affected by violence. 

“Her safety is our priority, and we will record her statement on Saturday before the magistrate,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

A story of repeated harassment

According to a news report by Scroll, Chauhan and Khan got married privately in August 2022 but did not move in together as they were hoping to convince her family to approve of their union. The husband and wife ran their small businesses next door to each other in Ghaziabad: Chauhan ran a beauty parlour, while Khan opened a centre to help people fill out government forms.

On May 24 this year, after her father beat her and forced her to divorce Khan, the couple left for Prayagraj to seek protection from the Allahabad high court. On May 25, her father filed a complaint of abduction against Khan at the Indirapuram police station and accused him of kidnapping Chauhan on May 24. 

The couple then returned to Ghaziabad on May 25 and presented themselves before the police as they feared for Khan’s family’s safety, according to Scroll. Then too, Chauhan had clarified that she had left home on her own. However, the police arrested Khan and sent Chauhan back to her parents’ house. Khan then spent two weeks in prison, until he got bail on June 8, per Scroll.

Meanwhile, on May 26, a mob of around 50 people vandalised the couple’s next-door businesses in Ghaziabad, and both eye-witness accounts and CCTV footage placed BJP leader Bhandari in the mob.

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