Marriage certificate of BJP MLA’s daughter is fake, says temple priest

Mangalore Today News Network

Uttar Pradesh, Jul 12, 2019 : The main priest of the temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj has said he has not performed the wedding of the daughter of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Bithari Chainpur, who in video messages alleged her life was in danger after she married a Dalit man, Hindustan Times reported.

 

Twenty-three-year-old Sakshi Misra had said in a video on Wednesday that she faced a threat to her life from her father Rajesh Mishra, brother and their associate after marrying outside her caste. She also sought security from the police to her husband Ajitesh Kumar, 29, and herself and moved the Allahabad High Court seeking protection.

“No marriages are performed at the temple and the certificate issued for the couple in the name of the temple has been forged,” Parshuram Das, the mahant of Ati Prachin Ram Janki Temple on the banks of the Ganga in Begum Sarai, said.

The certificate, which has gone viral on social media, shows it has been issued in the name of Ati Pracheen Ramjanki Temple in Begum Sarai.

It mentions that the marriage of Ajitesh Kumar and Sakshi was performed according to Vedic Hindu rituals on the premises of the Ram Janki Temple in the evening on July 4. The certificate also bears the signature of two witnesses Ayush Kumar and Sudhir Kumar as well as that of Vishwapati Shukla, the priest said to be in charge of the rituals.

Shukla, however, said he did perform the wedding.

As the controversy over his daughter’s video raged, Rajesh Misra issued a statement on Thursday denying Sakshi’s allegation. He said Sakshi was an adult and within her rights to take her own decisions.

“I am busy with my party work and membership drive and I have not said a word to my daughter. These allegations are false,” he said.

Sakshi and Ajitesh petitioned the Allahabad high court claiming she feared for her life because her Brahmin family was opposed to her marriage with a Dalit. They said they were adults and had got married of their own free will.

The court listed the hearing on the matter for Monday.

Deputy inspector general of police RK Pandey said that he ordered security cover for the couple after he came to know about Sakshi’s video messages.