AHMEDABAD: Happily-ever-after stories are all about leaving the trials and tribulations behind. So, imagine the incredulity on the face of a 48-year-old grandfather of two when police landed at his doorstep around a week ago to arrest him for “kidnapping” his wife of 27 years — the one he loved, eloped with, and built a home with four daughters.
Turns out his wife’s parents had filed a case against him after their daughter fled with the man she wanted to spend her life with against her family’s wishes.
That was in Aug 1997. The charge of kidnapping under sections 363 and 364 of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code remained against the then 21-year-old native of Rajasthan’s Ajmer, unbeknownst to the couple revelling in newly-wedded bliss in a village of Gujarat.
Wife says we’re happily married, cops say have to arrest man
Mehsana Police recently received information that a man resembling a fugitive “kidnapper” against whom a case had been filed almost three decades ago was now living in that area and making a living as an autorickshaw operator.
Narendrasinh Sodha from the Mehsana police said a cops landed at the man’s doorstep, only to find the woman he is supposed to have kidnapped living with him as his wife.
“We had no option but to arrest the man, although his wife said they had been happily married. She paraded their four daughters and two grandchildren as proof and said that there was no longer any animosity with her family,” Sodha said.
The woman’s father died some years ago, while her brother doesn’t even remember that a case had been filed. Days after the Oct 2 arrest, a court freed the autorickshaw driver on bail. An officer blamed the confusion on the family’s failure to inform police about their “reconciliation over the years”.
#Law #catches #love #years #man #arrested #kidnapping #wife #India #News #Times #India
