February 29, 2008	Friday	Safar 21, 1429

HYDERABAD, Feb 28: A newly-married woman on Thursday appealed for protection from a relative who she said had filed a fabricated case against her husband and in-laws accusing them of kidnapping her.

Erum Sultana said at a news conference here with her husband Ahsan Ali that she had been betrothed to Ahsan, son of Turab Ali, before their marriage but her mother was forcing her to marry an older man after the death of her father Mehboob Ali.

Her uncle Noor Ali occupied her father’s business and started blackmailing her mother and forcing her to marry her daughter to someone he knew, she said.

But she refused and left her house in Mehran Colony Sakrand on Feb 22 and the following day, she married Ahsan Ali of her own free will, she said.

She said she was 23-year-old and had the right to make her own decisions. She had filed an affidavit in the court of civil judge and judicial magistrate Sakrand and then moved to Gulshan-i-Hali, Hyderabad along with her husband.

Her uncle chased her to Hyderabad and filed a false FIR accusing her in-laws of kidnapping her at Gulshan-i-Hali police station, she said.