The daughter of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Bhopal has moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court, alleging that her family was forcing her to get married to a politician’s son, the police told PTI on Saturday. The 28-year-old woman, Bharti Singh, made the allegations after her father, Surendra Nath Singh, filed a missing person case on October 16.

In the report filed with Kamla Nagar police station in Bhopal, Singh claimed that his daughter was “mentally unwell”, according to Inspector Vijay Sisodia.

The woman also released a video clip, carried by a local news channel, of herself talking about the alleged harassment. “My family wants me to get married to an MLA’s son against my wish,” she said, according to India Today. “I am being drugged with injections.”

She said she was safe and happy after leaving her home of her own volition and added she was not “with a Christian, Muslim”. Bharti Singh also refuted the allegation that she was mentally disturbed and accused her father of tampering with her health documents. “My family has gathered fudged documents regarding my health as they are influential,” she said in the video clip. “I am being bothered intentionally. I don’t want to return home,” she said in the clip. The woman also accused one of her cousins of harassing and assaulting her.

Bharti Singh said she had left home around 10 to 20 times before, and was currently living in Pune. She claimed that her family called her back home, saying that her mother was in a “miserable condition” but soon resumed forcing her to get married. Following this, she added that she was forced to leave home again.

The woman asked the court for police protection and urged it to set aside any complaint against her. “My client is being harassed, especially by her cousin,” the woman’s lawyer Ankit Saxena told The Times of India. “She does not want to marry now and wants to live her life. She has sought protection and relief from [the] court.”

Saxena added that the woman was being forced to break off her relationship with a man from Pune to marry the politician’s son.

Singh, who is a former BJP MLA from Bhopal, refuted his daughter’s accusations and claimed the matter was a “struggle between two generations”. He said that every parent wanted their child to get married to a better person, but the current generation wanted to settle down in their career before marriage.

Singh said there was no dispute and that he was informed about his daughter approaching the court. He also said that Bharti Singh was suffering from depression.

Now, follow and debate the day’s most significant stories on Scroll Exchange.