Asking police to take immediate action on any complaint from them, Delhi High Court on Monday came to the aid of a couple who got married against the wishes of their respective families and were getting threats from them.
The vacation bench of Justice S.N. Dhingra afforded the protection to Gaurav and Chanchal who got married May 18.
Hearing Chanchal’s family complaint of kidnapping against Gaurav, following which he was put behind bars after the case’s investigating officer falsely told the court that Chanchal was a minor, the judge expressed displeasure about the investigating officer’s attempt to mislead the court.
Last week, a city court took up Gaurav’s case and expressed shock over the way police probed the case and supported the girl’s family who were against the marriage.
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau then ordered Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal and the deputy commissioner of police concerned to trace and bring Chanchal before the court, which they did.
The court gave relief to 22-year-old Gaurav by extending his bail so that he could continue his efforts to track Chanchal.
Lau also asked Dadwal to initiate departmental action against the investigating officer whose statement before the high court landed the couple in trouble.
After the couple’s marriage at a temple on May 18, Chanchal’s father Kashi Ram Sharma filed a police complaint about his daughter being kidnapped.
Chanchal too wrote to the police commissioner and the local station house officer about a possible threat from her family. When that failed to yield any result, she filed a writ petition in the high court.
The court took up the petition on May 31 when the prosecution, on the basis of the investigating officer’s instructions, misled the court by claiming that Chanchal was aged 17 years, 11 months and 11 days on the date of the marriage, as per information from Chanchal’s parents.
The court then passed an order to send Chanchal to Nari Niketan.
On June 10, Gaurav was arrested and sent to Tihar jail, while Chanchal was asked by the investigating officer to go back with her parents after recording her statement before a magistrate.
