A 43-year-old widow in Mymensingh has been left shocked after learning that a marriage had allegedly been registered in her name, despite her insistence that she never married or consented to such a union.
The incident reportedly took place recently in a village in Fulbaria upazila. The woman said her National Identity Card photocopy and photograph were collected on the promise of helping her obtain a Family Card. A few days later, she was called again and asked to put her fingerprint on a piece of paper. She later learned that people in the village were claiming she had married and was shown a kabinnama, or Muslim marriage contract.
The woman has alleged that local Jamaat associate Abdus Sattar took her fingerprint by misleading her about the Family Card. She believes the fingerprint was subsequently used to prepare a fraudulent marriage document.
“I did not go anywhere to get married. I did not meet any kazi either,” the woman said when speaking at her home on Wednesday.
Her husband died around 13 years ago. Since his death, she says she has supported her family by working on other people’s land. She raised her two sons and arranged their marriages. She now has grandchildren.
The allegation has prompted concern in the village, with local elders holding arbitration meetings to establish what happened. The case has also raised questions over how the disputed marriage document was prepared and whether the woman’s personal information and fingerprint were used without her consent.
Sattar, who has a cosmetics shop and describes himself as an associate member of Jamaat, has denied the allegation. He said he did not take the woman’s fingerprint by offering to arrange a Family Card. He claimed that a land-related dispute in the area was behind the accusation against him.
Md Fazlul Haque, the Jamaat amir for Fulbaria upazila, said the organisation had made preliminary inquiries after learning about the incident. According to him, Sattar is not an office-bearer of Jamaat. He was an associate member of a centre committee during the previous election and had previously been involved in BNP politics, Haque said.
Haque said the organisation was examining the matter and wanted those responsible for any wrongdoing to face justice. However, he added that preliminary information suggested the incident might have been fabricated or motivated by other interests.
The kabinnama circulating in the village names local resident Abdul Quddus as the groom. According to the allegations, Quddus had previously proposed marriage to the woman several times, but she never agreed to his proposals.
Quddus is already married to Sufia Khatun and has children and grandchildren. He was not found at his home when reporters visited. His wife said he had never previously told her about any marriage with the widow.
After the matter became known, Sufia said, Quddus claimed that he had entered into a “court marriage”. She said members of the family tried several times to persuade him to explain the matter, but he did not listen.
The disputed kabinnama identifies kazi Golam Mostafa as the person who allegedly solemnised the marriage. It records a dowry of Tk 250,000, with Tk 50,000 allegedly paid in cash. Abdul Mannan and Saiful Islam are named as witnesses.
Saiful Islam, however, has denied being a witness to any such marriage.
Golam Mostafa has also rejected the document’s authenticity. He said he had not solemnised the marriage and described the circulated paper as completely forged. He said a similar forged document had been produced using his name in 2020, prompting him to file a general diary with the police at the time.
He said he would speak to the police again to determine what legal action could be taken over the latest incident.
Two arbitration meetings were held in the village on Monday and Wednesday. Neither Sattar nor Quddus attended. The local mediators have given them until Friday to clarify their positions.
Mohammad Rustam Ali, who led the arbitration process, said they were still trying to establish how the disputed document had been created and what had happened. If the matter could not be resolved through local mediation, he said, legal proceedings would follow.
Fulbaria police station officer-in-charge Mohammad Rashedul Hasan said police had heard about the incident from several people but had not received any written complaint.
He said that if a formal complaint was submitted, police would investigate the allegations and take action in accordance with the law.
For now, the central claims remain disputed. The woman says she never married and that her fingerprint was obtained under a false pretext, while the accused has denied taking the fingerprint for such a purpose. The authenticity of the kabinnama, the identities of those involved and the circumstances in which the woman’s fingerprint was obtained will need to be established through a formal investigation.
