Note: This story has been edited to reflect later developments.
Hours after a young woman appeared to have been abducted by unidentified men in Telangana's Rajanna Sircilla district, she revealed that she had in fact willingly eloped with her boyfriend. Eighteen-year-old Goli Shalini (18) said that her parents were opposed to her marrying her 22-year-old boyfriend Katkuri Gyaneshwar (John), as he is Dalit. CCTV footage of what seemed to be her abduction by masked men went viral on social media on Tuesday, December 20. The footage from Moodapalli village of Chandurthi mandal showed a man dragging Shalini by force, pushing her into a car and speeding away. The man was assisted by two or three other men.
On Tuesday afternoon, Shalini revealed that she had willingly left with Gyaneshwar. In a video statement released after a wedding ceremony, Shalini said, “We fell in love and got married a year back. Since I was a minor, the marriage was not considered valid. My parents registered a police complaint, sent him to jail and took me home. Only because he is from a Dalit family, my family didn’t accept him,” Shalini said. Gyaneshwar had earlier been arrested based on a complaint from Shalini’s family under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Shalini was 17 years old at the time. Her family belongs to the Munnuru Kapu community, categorised under Backward Classes in Telangana.
Shalini said that she had called Gyaneshwar to inform him that her parents were trying to arrange her marriage with another man, and asked him to help her get away. However, when Gyaneshwar arrived on Tuesday morning at the temple that she regularly visits along with her father, she said she was unable to recognise him as he had covered his face with a cloth. In the CCTV video, Shalini is seen struggling to get away from the man trying to take her to the car.
The visuals also showed the woman’s father Chandraiah trying to stop them. The men were seen pushing him away before speeding away in the car. He then tried to chase the car on his motorcycle but was unable to catch up with them. He later lodged a complaint with the police, who had registered a case of kidnapping.