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The Kerala High Court, on Saturday, June 20, has directed the police to provide protection to Monalisa Bhosle, who came into the spotlight during the 2025 Prayag Maha Kumbh Mela and whose interreligious marriage to actor Farman Khan later triggered a political and legal controversy.
The order came after Monalisa approached the court seeking protection, alleging that she was facing threats. She also produced screenshots of the threatening messages she said she had received.
In her plea, she reportedly cited the possibility of an “honour killing” if she returned to Madhya Pradesh – a term often used to refer to killings carried out by families or communities over relationships they oppose. As per reports, she has stated in her plea that she was currently alive only because she was residing in Kerala.
In response to the petition, the court directed the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Kochi Central Police Station to ensure her safety.
Monalisa married Farman Khan on March 11, 2026, at a temple in Thiruvananthapuram. At the time, she had approached Kerala police, stated that she was acting of her own will, and produced documents showing that she was an adult. The marriage was subsequently registered through official channels.
However, the wedding soon became the centre of a larger controversy after allegations emerged from Madhya Pradesh questioning Monalisa’s age. A complaint before the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) claimed that she was a minor at the time of the marriage, following which a hospital birth register showing a different date of birth surfaced.
Monalisa and Farman have maintained that she is an adult and that the marriage happened with her consent.
The controversy also took a political turn, with several right-wing voices describing the marriage as “love jihad”. The couple, meanwhile, has repeatedly denied allegations of conversion or coercion.
The latest High Court order comes amid multiple competing claims around Monalisa’s identity and age. While authorities in Kerala accepted the documents submitted by her at the time of marriage, inquiries in Madhya Pradesh have questioned those records.
A TNM investigation into the controversy found that the documentary trail around Monalisa’s age itself is disputed. Records reviewed by TNM from Madhya Pradesh’s Samagra portal showed that requests to alter details for multiple members of Monalisa’s family, including her date of birth, had been submitted on May 20, 2025, months before her marriage to Farman. The records showed her date of birth being changed from January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2008 through an e-KYC-linked request that was later marked as approved by the concerned local body.
When TNM later independently checked the portal, the entries could no longer be located.
Read TNM’s deep dive on how Monalisa Bhosle’s life became a site of contest between two states, political narratives, and competing documents:
