NRI Girl from Muscat Lured into Marriage, Deserted

Ghaziabad, Sep 17 (IANS): A young NRI woman from Muscat was enticed over the internet by the owner of a professional studies college to come to India, given a job in the college, got married to him and was deserted after 20 days. Police have registered a criminal case against the man who along with his family is absconding.

The police said they have registered a criminal case against the culprits under stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code - for rape and demanding dowry.

The family is untraceable although the father of the man claimed that his son is responsible for the crime. "But why have the parents deserted their home and are not accepting her as their daughter in law," the Station Officer (SO) Alka Agrawal told the IANS correspondent. Agarwal had asked the boy's parents the same question.

The 22-year-old graduate from Muscat said: "I trusted his false statement that he can't afford to lose me." The man hid her in a hotel for 20 days after their formal and legal marriage that was solemnized on Aug 16 this year.

When she insisted on visiting his house, the man - the son of a steel trader who runs a professional institute - told her to wait for 10 minutes at the hotel Krishna Sagar after checking out from their room on Sep 9. He told her to wait so that he could convince his parents to accept her as the bride, but he never returned, the woman told this IANS correspondent in the police station.

When the man did not return after the promised 10 minutes on Sep 9, she went to his residence where she had to wait outside the main gate of their residence at RDC-23. The entire family had deserted the house. The maid did not allow her to come inside but reluctantly gave her a glass of water through the closed gate on her request.

The next day she approached the Kavi Nagar police station. The mobile number of the man was found switched off when police sub inspector Deepak Shukla tried to call him while his father, who was contacted on the phone, promised to come to the police station to resolve the issue - but he too has not shown up so far. The police also have not located the place from where he spoke, the woman said.

Giving details of her meeting with the man, the woman said she was trapped by his sweet talk on phone. He insisted that she come to India, offered a job of Manager HR in his institute - Virtuosic Institute of Professional Studies at B-4 RDC Raj Nagar Ghaziabad. He provided her accommodation in a hotel and then deserted her.

She braved opposition from her family to come to India. Her mother was against the boy, she said, but she decided to go ahead. "Now, I have nowhere to complain," she said.

The police registered the case after all efforts to call the man and his family failed. Although the family is in close touch with the police through phone calls but they are not showing up. The woman is keen for the issue to be settled through the police's initiative, but has to wait till the police arrest him.

Alka Agrawal said "We have initiated legal action in the case and hope to arrest the culprit soon. His father has promised to come shortly to us."