Kapurthala, March 26
An NRI was arrested here for marrying a girl despite divorce proceedings with his first wife still on.
Rajwinder Singh Chahal was arrested amid high drama at the insistence of the Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) after his first wife Sarabjeet Kaur’s father Sukhdev Singh, hailing from Aurh village in Nawanshahr district, filed a complaint.
While the police had caught the bridegroom around noon, an FIR was registered against him in the evening after taking proper advice from DA (legal), city SHO Piara Singh said. The FIR had been lodged under Sections 494, 420 and 511 of the IPC against Rajwinder, a citizen of the UK. He reportedly hailed from Jallowal village, the
SHO added. Sukhdev came to know from her daughter Sarabjeet Kaur, who is settled in the UK, that Rajwinder was in Punjab and might marry another girl.
Sukhdev came to know that Rajwinder was going to marry to Makhan
Singh’s daughter Harpreet Kaur at Milan Palace in Kapurthala today. He, along with activists of the LBP, led by their leader Avtar Singh Mullanpuri, informed the district police about the illegal marriage.
When some cameramen from the Press were capturing the groom, one of his relatives manhandled them. At this, agitated LBP activists and the relatives of Rajwinder’s first wife thrashed the groom, his father and their other relatives. To control the situation, the police took the groom and his father into its custody. The NRI claimed that he had already divorced his first wife. He could only produce the documents, which showed the divorce proceedings were still going on in a UK court. He had married Sarabjeet on September 25, 1994.
Meanwhile, the police let groom’s father Gurdev go. The couple has 10-year-old son Amritdev Singh, who lives with his mother Sarabjeet in the UK.
