The FIR against the Muslim groom has left two families, who barely a week ago were in a celebratory mood, worrying for their safety.
The engagement hall that was booked by the Meerut families. Akanksha Gautam and Shahvez Rana were supposed to exchange rings last week when an FIR was lodged against the groom alleging forced conversion. | Sabah Gurmat | ThePrint
A Meerut interfaith wedding between Akanksha Gautam and Shahvez Rana was cancelled after Akanksha’s uncle, instigated by a Hindutva group, filed a “love jihad” FIR. The couple, who had planned a secular marriage, face emotional and financial distress, and fear for their safety under Uttar Pradesh’s controversial law.
*AI-generated summary. Check context in original text.
Meerut: Akanksha Gautam should have been receiving congratulatory messages and calls on her phone. The 29-year-old Meerut woman was supposed to marry her former neighbour Shahvez Rana. Now, the wedding is cancelled. And an FIR and the draconian love-jihad law haunt the couple.
Akanksha’s phone was ringing non-stop on Wednesday morning. But now, she is battling the system while trying hard to minimise her losses on a wedding that has cost the family a fortune.
“I paid Rs 65,000 to book the Saat Phere banquet hall for my sagai. I just want the refund now,” said Akanksha, distraught about what is to follow.
In her living room, crammed with cartons of Voltas and LG ACs bought as “gifts” for the groom’s side, Akanksha sank into the sofa and turned her phone off.
Her cousin Madhu had arrived from Agra, looking forward to all the dancing and celebrations at the haldi and mehendi ceremonies.
“Now it’s less like a shadi ka ghar, more like a maatam ka mahaul.”
The Meerut couple is the latest to be at the receiving end of the Uttar Pradesh law that many have called regressive ever since it came into existence in 2020. The case has left two families, who till barely a week ago were in a celebratory mood, worrying for their safety. While police investigate the ‘love jihad’ allegations against the groom, and the family seeks appointments with top cops in the hope of some relief, WhatsApp forwards and fake news circulation hound Shahvez and his kin. And the Hindu group that helped file the FIR has openly declared they will not leave the couple alone. In UP, nobody wants to host an inter-faith wedding.
Twenty-five-year-old Shahvez served as a manager at a small privately-run hospital in Meerut. Now, he is “too afraid” to return to his work.
“My name, my work, my reputation has all gone. Even Akanksha – and she is alone just with her sister and mother, did anyone think of her? – she is at risk too. This is all happening because of Sachin Sirohi and goons like him who have instigated her uncle. Her chacha has known me for years, did he not know I’m Muslim? Go ask him, ask his whole family. They all know me well! They are just being instigated by these hate mongering goons” said Shahvez over a video call, unable to hold back his tears.
Sirohi is a well-known vigilante in Meerut who enjoys political patronage. He was earlier the Meerut zone’s head of the Hindu Jagran Manch, and has been involved in incidents like this in the past as well. Local journalists said he likes to do whatever it takes to get in the limelight.
ThePrint tried reaching out to Meerut SSP Avinash Pandey and SP (rural) Abhijeet Kumar through calls and messages. This report will be updated with their responses as and when they arrive.
Investigating Officer Dheeraj Singh said the probe was underway and that the police will proceed accordingly to ascertain whether this is a case of forced conversion or not.
“No arrests have been made so far. The complainant’s claim was an offence of a serious nature, and the police are bound to register a case.”
Sachin Sirohi (second from left), president of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Suraksha Sangathan with Prem Chand (third from left), Akanksha’s uncle in whose name the FIR was registered against Shahvez the Muslim groom. | Sabah Gurmat | ThePrint
A name, a dog whistle, and an FIR
Relatives from Agra had arrived at Akanksha’s home for the wedding. As the family now tries to make sense of the developments, they are also keeping an eye on how the case is being reported in the media
Rohan, one of Akanksha’s nephews, fished out his phone and played a TV news story about Shahvez’s purported “Love Jihad”, even as he said that Shahvez had been like a friend to him.
All her maternal side of relatives knew of him since the time they were friends. Madhu, the cousin and Megha, the younger sister, saw Shahvez as a caring and responsible man. Someone who had “always been there as a friend to our sister”.
Akanksha Gautam with her mehndi. | Sabah Gurmat | ThePrint
At the centre of this storm is 39-year-old Sachin Sirohi, who accompanied Akanksha’s uncle Prem Chand, and went to the Ganga Nagar police station on 9 February– just hours before the couple’s sagai/engagement ceremony. Their biggest reservation was a name printed on the wedding card.
Shahvez’s name was printed as ‘Sahil’ in one version of the wedding cards distributed by the bride’s side. Aided by members of various Hindutva organisations, a police complaint was filed, which was later converted into an FIR.
In 2021, Sirohi was booked in a case that involved pressurising a Hindu woman to slap and assault her Muslim friend.
In December last year, Sirohi was accused by the family of a Muslim home-buyer, as the person responsible for threats. Sirohi and other Hindutva groups had opposed the sale of a home to a Muslim family in a posh colony inhabited by Hindus and Sikhs.
Now, there is anger among Akanksha’s family members and an urge to respond.
Rohan said that if their side could get “people from the Bhim Army”—the way Sachin Sirohi had brought in 15 to 20 Hindutva men to register a police case against Shahvez—then things would’ve been different.
Akanksha’s family has accused Prem Chand of troubling them because of a property dispute. But Chand didn’t respond to the allegations.
“The guy is Muslim, and I cannot get her married to a Muslim,” said Chand, who works as book binder.
Sirohi heads the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Suraksha Sangathan and boasted that he and his organisation would follow the couple wherever they go.
“If they try to get their wedding registered anywhere else, we will follow them there too,” he said, even as he emphasised that the complaint was at the uncle’s behest.
“They can keep claiming they have a right to get married as per the Constitution. Technically, even we ourselves are following the Constitution – this is the law of the land here, we have a law against forced conversion. Let the police do its investigation and decide whether the conversion is forced or not. On our part, we are entitled to file a case,” a chuffed Sirohi told ThePrint.
Two families in the neighbourhood
Akanksha’s father, who died in 2023, was a development officer with LIC insurance. He worked primarily in Bijnor and retired in Meerut, where he decided to build the family home in the upscale society. It’s a big home, difficult to miss. A sedan parked outside along with a scooter.
Both Akanksha and Shahvez are white collar professionals. While Akanksha works as an accounts manager with a leading private sector bank, Shahvez helps run a small private hospital. And their relationship had all the acceptance in their social circles.
Shahvez, Akanksha and her sister Megha claimed, is known to her workplace and colleagues/friends.
Megha, 25, has recently finished her B.ed and said Shahvez is like her brother. He has been “part of our family.”
The family follows Buddhism and identifies as Ambedkarite Buddhists.
Her family as well as Shahvez’s have known each other for at least the past six years.
“I have known Shahvez and his family since 2020. He used to live in the same neighbourhood as us back then. Everyone in the family knows him, and my husband even used to ask him to be her chaperone when she used to go out for some events. Even his elder sister is married to a Hindu, why would there be any problem from the family’s side?” said Lata Rani.
Both families have no paternal figure. While Shahvez’s father passed away more than a decade ago, Akanksha’s father died of a heart attack in 2023. But the families have maintained ties—between mothers, between siblings.
Akanksha’s paternal relatives though have been estranged.
“How does a paternal uncle who has hardly cared for us now get to file an FIR in my name? If my mother has no problem, then who is he to stop this marriage?” a weary Akanksha said.
Akanksha and her maternal relatives claim that since her father’s death, her chacha Prem Chand has been eyeing their family’s property and that the complaint came from vested interests in the same.
Two wedding cards
Amid all the old ties and immediate social acceptance they enjoyed, Akanksha and Shahvez knew the process of marriage would require special efforts on their part. And they had prepared for it. Shahvez’s sister is married to a Hindu man.
The couple first filed for a secular marriage under the Special Marriage Act of 1954. The two submitted their respective personal documents, including Aadhaar cards and proof of unmarried status and addresses on 17 November 2025. While their application was pending before the Additional District Magistrate-City (ADM-City) of Meerut, the couple was counselled by their lawyer who told them to go ahead and fix the date for wedding functions.
Akanksha asserted that as of January 2026, they received word from the ADM’s office that the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) of the police had given the go-ahead, and their application was expected to be cleared soon. So, their families decided to proceed with the functions.
Two wedding cards were printed and their soft copies distributed online to friends and family. The groom’s side had their own version of an invitation, while Akanksha’s side had printed Shahvez’s card with his name as ‘Sahil’, the main bone of contention in the police case now registered against him.
According to the FIR, Shahvez had hidden his “real name” on the wedding card, and that it was part of “Love Jehad.”
“My nephew was brainwashed.”
Akanksha’s younger sister Megha and cousin Madhu, as well as her mother all pointed out that ‘Sahil’ was a nickname of sorts used for Shahvez.
“Akanksha has a ghar ka naam of Dolly as well. Don’t people like to address each other by preferred names? And since the wedding was going to happen as per Buddhist rituals, we thought why not let him be Sahil? How is it about Love Jihad here? We have always known since Day 1 that he comes from a Muslim family,” her younger sister Megha said.
‘I don’t feel safe’
Over ten kilometres south of Akanksha’s home, Shahvez’s family lies huddled together in a bedroom. Pulling out photos of both the wedding cards, his mother Shehnaz pointed to the cards they had been sending to their relatives and well-wishers. They clearly displayed his name as ‘Shahvez’.
Shehnaz, 53, burst into sobs as she spoke.
“Neither of us (Akanksha’s mother) have ever interfered in our children’s lives” and emphasised that if they were “trying to hide who we are”, then both cards would not have printed Shahvez’s parents’ names as Shehnaz and Shakil Ahmad.
“His older sister herself is married into a Hindu family. What is there for us to have a problem with? Instead, it is us who can’t even step outside our homes now. What about my son and his reputation?” Shehnaz sighed.
Both Shahvez and Akanksha said they had gone as per law and that they didn’t think it would end up this way because both families know each other. Even Prem Chand (and his son) know Shahvez and have never had any reservations.
“We followed every step as per the rule of law. We submitted all our documents months before to the ADM. No conversion was happening. I have been on good terms with all of her family and she is with mine”.
That said, Shahvez was also scared. There is a “dual system of rule of law” for Muslims versus others, he said.
Today, Shahvez’s family have been running from pillar to post to demand why the police complaint was registered in the first place. A, his older brother, who presently serves in the army (and hence declined to give his full name), had come down from Kolkata to attend the wedding. He rues that he now has been spending his leave trying to get an appointment with the city’s police and IAS officials.
Meanwhile, another sibling – Shahvez’s younger sister AN – who plays cricket in the women’s under-19 state levels, has been distraught at what this means for her family’s name.
When A tried visiting the police Monday, he was accosted by Sachin Sirohi and some 15-20 men who were raising slogans outside the thaana. He now demands police protection.
Shahvez himself has been lying low. When ThePrint visited his house, he was out at a relative’s place. However, initially, he had thought to be bold.
“I would have initiated my own press conference, but right now I first need a guarantee of my own safety.”
And he hasn’t been “hiding his name”, he said, adding that he was happy to get married in accordance with Buddhist rituals.
“I am not an andh-bhakt, my mind doesn’t think of things in such narrow ways. Since Akanksha follows Buddhism and her mother and relatives call me Sahil out of fondness, I never had any issues. How is this Love Jihad? And you’re spreading WhatsApp forwards and fake news in my name, accusing me of putting my future wife in a suitcase?” he said while fighting angry tears.
‘It was too risky’
Sameer Rana, Shahvez’s younger brother and his mother Shehnaz both fished out a phone displaying photos of gold jewellery sets that had been purchased.
Sameer, 18, said that he and his older brothers had no idea what they would do with all the expenses made now.
Back at Akanksha’s home, some relatives are planning to leave. At least Rs six lakh have gone down the drain, said the would-be bride.
“The money for the photographer, the venues, decoration and my trousseau has already been spent. What can I do? I don’t even know what is going to happen now. We haven’t been able to think straight, who is going to guarantee that if we do decide to get married tomorrow then the venue’s managers won’t cancel on us now? Nobody wants to host an interfaith couple.
The venue that was booked for the couple’s engagement. | Sabah Gurmat | ThePrint
The two venues – Paradise resort and Saat Phere banquet hall – both cancelled on the couple, thanks to threats from people like Sachin Sirohi and these goons.
Vivek Gupta, the manager of the Saat Phere restaurant and banquet hall, located in a bustling arterial road of the city, said he had no qualms about hosting the couple for their sagai.
“But pange lene waali baat thi (it was too risky),” he admitted.
Gupta claimed that had the couple insisted on going ahead, he would have provided the venue, but the couple themselves backed out under duress.
Akanksha’s mother Lata Rani, meanwhile, brushed her fingers over the fuchsia pink kurta dupatta that had been tightly packed into a suitcase that was to travel to the engagement venue.
“The problem is they have been given complete impunity to do what they like. How can anyone stop two consenting adults from getting married?”, she said.
Sabah Gurmat, (Edited by Anurag Chaubey)
Courtesy : The Print
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