M A I N   N E W S

Widowers, beware of marriage
From Iqbal Singh

KHANNA, Dec 20 — Beware of a marriage offer if it comes voluntarily from a middle-aged looking woman. It may eventually turn out to be a trap to play a fraud on you.

At least 50 persons have been taken for a ride by a woman identified as Harbans Kaur. The woman is heading a gang of unspecified number of men and women.

Her modus operandi is very simple. She looks for a widower interested in remarriage. She makes him an offer of marriage with the promise to arrange for a good looking girl. She waits for the response for a few days. She again works on the same person to make him agree. After the acceptance of her offer she takes the girl along for the final deal to clinch the marriage offer.

The bride then collects information about the house of her husband, including particulars of valuables and cash etc. At the first available opportunity, the bride decamps from the house with all valuables and cash.

The local police has already nabbed Harbans Kaur along with two other women and three men. It is a well-knit gang that has been operating in Khanna, Samrala, Ludhiana and other neighbouring areas for the past several months. More members of this gang were likely to be arrested in due course, Mr R.N. Dhoke, Senior Superintendent of Police, said here today.

Though at least 50 victims of this gang have already been identified there might be many more, Mr Dhoke said.

He told this correspondent that other members of the gang — Balwinder Singh, Rekha, Sunita, Bhupinder Sharma and Malkiat Kaur, have also been arrested. A case under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against them. Rekha, Balwinder Singh and his wife Malkiat Kaur are residents of Ludhiana and others hail from Moga. Mr Dhoke said that mainly Rekha and Sunita used to be married off to aspirant widowers.

As the interrogation is in progress, some more interesting details about the operations of this gang in this area also expected to come to light. Mr Dhoke said the accused would be produced in court for seeking their police remand soon. The police is trying to find the whereabouts of other gang members.