LUDHIANA, Sept 21 — Is the bride of the UT Home Secretary Raminder Singh Gujral being victimised at the behest of her husband who wanted to get rid of her? Is she more sinned against than sinning?

The answer could well be in the affirmative given the lacunae in the complaint made against her . Certain allegations regarding the circumstances leading to the marriage between the couple and the subsequent turn of events within a fortnight ,too, has raised serious questions about the truth in the police complaint.

According to highly placed sources, Manpreet Oberoi alias Manpreet Aggarwal knew number of IAS officers based in Chandigarh. It was during her stay there that she also reportedly came in contact with Mr. Gujral and the two had been moving out together.

In the meantime, Manpreet managed to procure certain documents about the financial matters of the IAS officer. It is alleged that she then began threatening him into marrying her and he finally conceded. It was reportedly under a well thought-out plan that he decided to take her to the USA for honeymoon. In fact, the Home Secretary claims that he got suspicious about integrity of his bride when the couple had gone to the US Embassy to obtain a visa. However, he chose to take action against her only after he had left her behind in the USA.

Even in the FIR registered against Manpreet, her father, Surjit Singh Oberoi and her “former husband” Vishal Aggrawal, Mr. Gujral has said that when he was told by the Embassy officials that his wife had tried to obtain a visa once by posing as a married woman when she was divorced. He has maintained that the Embassy officials had told him that they had denied a visa to him once and it was only when he had intervened and pleaded her case that the visa had been granted.

Sources also disclose that the entire sequence of events was actually an exercise to get rid of Manpreet and ensure that she could no longer ‘black mail’ him.

It is also alleged that there was inducement on the part of Mr Gujral to solemnise the marriage at Chandigarh. In the FIR, Mr Gujral had maintained that though Mr. Oberoi wanted him to take away Manpreet on the day of the “shagan’” ceremony itself, but he had declined and asked for the marriage to be performed in Chandigarh on August 23.

Since the marriage was performed at Chandigarh and the alleged revelations about Manpreet came to the fore while the couple was in America, legal experts are questioning the registration of the FIR in Ludhiana. Also, the fact that Mr. Gujral had himself reached back from his honeymoon on September 7, but the FIR was registered by him only on September 18.

The registration of the case against the three persons under Sections 495 and 420 of the IPC is also suspect as Section 495 is used only when there is proof of existence of marriage in the form of a certificate or a witness to marriage- which is reportedly not there. It is alleged that the proof the police claims to have in the form of common bank accounts, use of surname of Vishal Aggarwal etc. is only circumstantial.

Meanwhile, it may be noted that though the accused S S Oberoi and Vishal Aggarwal were granted a judicial remand till October 3 in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate B.K. Mehta, the two were kept in police custody. The counsel for the accused also moved an application in this regard against the police today in the court of the Addl. CJM after the two accused were granted bail.