Odisha: Man beaten up by wife, Mother-in-law for religion conversion

Gajapati: In a bizarre incident, a man was mercilessly beaten up by his wife and mother-in-law in front of Govindpur Tehsil Office in Odisha’s Gajapati district on Thursday, allegedly due to his refusal for converting religion.

The victim, identified as Thabir Panda, has been working as an RI at the Tehsil Office in the district.

According to reports, Thabir is a Hindu, while his wife Surabhi practices Christianity. Both were in love and had lawfully married each other in Bhawanipatna court in 2014. Problems arose when Thabir refused to change his religion post marriage as his in-laws had been forcing him to convert to Christianity.

Surabhi and her mother decided to take the matter into their own hands. They ambushed Thabir out of his office and thrashed him mercilessly.  The mother-daughter duo also abused Thabir using foul language.

Talking to media persons, Thabir said, “I and Surbhi loved each other. Since we belonged to different religions we decided to get married in Bhawanipatna court on 30 March 2014. She and her family started torturing me after I refused to convert to Christianity post marriage. Her family also wanted to have a Christian marriage”.

He further added that they hardly stayed together. Whenever they stayed together, the dispute over his conversion took an ugly turn. Thabir has always repeatedly refused for conversion since he is the only son of his parents. He also said that he had previously sought help from Police, but in vain citing their court marriage.

Surbhi and her mother refused to give any statements to the media and claimed that this their personal matter.

Meanwhile, Thabir lodged a complaint at the local police station against his wife Surbhi and his mother-in-law in this connection.

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