Woman arrested for groom kidnap

Piyush Srivastava, TT, Lucknow, May 18: Police have arrested the young woman who had kidnapped her "love of 10 years" from the mandap of his marriage to another woman in Uttar Pradesh. Varsha Sahu, 25, had barged into the Bundelkhand college where the wedding was taking place around 1.30am on Wednesday and taken the groom, Ashok Yadav, away at gunpoint. During raids last night in the Baniyota area of Banda town, 100km from the village in Hamirpur district where the wedding was taking place, the police arrested Varsha and two of her friends and also found Ashok. While Varsha and her friends Kirti and Rahul Kumar were found in one house, Ashok was found in an adjoining house. The door of the house where Ashok was found was open, suggesting that he had not been kept confined, police sources said. The police have booked Varsha for kidnap and Kirti and Rahul for helping her in the crime. The police said the black goggles, T-shirt and cap that Varsha wore during the kidnap had been bought from a Banda market a few hours earlier. The SUV in which Varsha, a paramedic, had whisked Ashok away had been arranged by Rahul, the police said. The revolver belongs to Varsha's father, a farmer in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh. Harish Chandra, the inquiry officer, said: "She had planned the operation meticulously and copied everything she might have seen in Bollywood movies. Although it was 1.30am when she reached the marriage venue, she had put on black goggles and a cap. She was also wearing jeans and a T-shirt to appear tough." The officer said Varsha was answering the police's questions "confidently". "She has no fear or regret. She wants Ashok back. She claimed they had married in court last year," Chandra added. Varsha has told the police that she and Ashok, both of whom work in Banda town, had been living together in a house in the area for several months. While the house in which Ashok was found belongs to Rahul, the one from which Varsha was arrested is Kirti's. The police sources said they were trying to ascertain whether Varsha's claim that she and Ashok were married was correct. According to the sources, Ashok was in the police's custody. The police said Ashok was a medical representative in Banda town but he spent most of the time in the doctor's clinic where Varsha worked. The police sources said some residents of Mohanpurva village in Banda district, from where Ashok hails, had claimed that he was a widower and had a son and a daughter. "Varsha said she did not know about this. It appears that the family of the girl with whom his marriage had been fixed also didn't know. We have to crosscheck the claim," an officer said. The father of the girl with whom Ashok was getting married, Ram Sajeevan alias Lallu Yadav, has lodged a police compliant of dowry demand against Ashok and his father Ramhet Yadav. The police have questioned Ramhet, who has denied the allegation and refused to talk about his son's past. He begged the police to allow Ashok to decide his own future.