The Times of India reports:
Haryana deputy chief minister Chander Mohan, who mysteriously disappeared from public view over a month ago, was on Sunday sacked from the post ....
His removal has come shortly after media reports that he had converted to Islam and married a woman, who was a former Deputy Advocate General in Punjab. The woman has also reportedly converted to Islam....
Mohan, who is already married and has two children, surfaced on Sunday with a woman. They told a private news channel that they embraced Islam and entered into wedlock recently....
An Indian Muslim cleric has issued a religious edict condemning the marriage:
Habib-ur-Rehman, shahi imam of the Jama Masjid at Fieldganj here, said the marriage of Chand Mohammed to Fiza (earlier Anuradha Bali) was a "fraud".
"He has done a wrong thing and this will not be accepted in Islam. No one can convert to Islam just to get married. The fatwa has been issued to caution Muslims against having anything to do with him. He should be socially boycotted," Rehman said here.
Rehman said Chander Mohan should be booked by the Haryana government for his illegal marriage and put behind bars....
But love, Mohan asserts, will conquer all:
But the love-struck Mohan appeared unruffled by the sacking. "Positions just come and go. I am a man of commitment and am very much part of the Congress party. It's for the high command to decide what role is to be assigned to me," he told a news conference in the state capital, Chandigarh.
"People will accept my love. Don't they in the movies? Reel and real (life) are no different," he said.
Apparently, this behavior is not unheard of: "Hindu men, and even women, usually resort to conversion for remarriage to try and get away from messy divorces and to evade the charge of bigamy, an offence under the Hindu Marriage Act."
Thanks to Religion Clause for the pointer.