Hours after a group of men on motorcycles allegedly stopped an SUV carrying a newlywed couple in Dahod and abducted the bride, police reported on Monday that four suspects had been detained. Eight police teams have been organized to locate the missing woman, officials added. The suspects are reportedly related to the bride.
The abduction occurred on Sunday night during a procession passing through Navagam, according to the police. Approximately 15 armed men on bikes halted the vehicle and kidnapped 22-year-old Usha, the bride.
In his complaint filed at the Katvara police station, 23-year-old groom Rohit Amaliyar identified five main suspects: Mahesh Bhuriya, Nilesh Bhabhor, Naresh Bhabhor, Shailesh Mavi, and Jitendra Bhabhor, along with about 10 others.
Amaliyar alleged that Bhuriya and others stopped their vehicle near Navagam around 9 PM on Sunday. According to the FIR, Amaliyar, who works as a finance executive in Godhra, had been engaged to Usha for over a year, and they married on Sunday. The bride is from Salapada, the last village in Dahod district near the Madhya Pradesh border.
“Just as our vehicle was about to turn towards my village of Bhatiwada, a dozen motorcycles arrived behind us and some overtook our vehicle and blocked the road, forcing the driver to brake. I identified Mahesh Bhuriya, a resident of Patra village in Jhabhua district of Madhya Pradesh… He pulled out the keys of our vehicle. He then opened the rear passenger’s door on the driver’s side and dragged my wife out of the car. When I asked another accused, Nilesh Bhabhor, why he was doing this to us, the accused remained silent and Bhuriya forcefully took my wife on a motorcycle driven by Nilesh Bhabhor…,” Amaliyar stated.
“The other accused, who accompanied them, also stopped the other vehicles of our procession from moving ahead until the accused disappeared from sight… This was a premeditated plan to abduct my wife while we were on our way to my house to start our new life,” he added.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Dahod Division, Jagdishsinh Bhandari told The Indian Express, “We have identified a total of eight other accused in the case. Of them, four have been rounded up so far. Primary investigation has revealed that Mahesh Bhuriya is the prime accused. Usha and the abductors are distant relatives and one of Mahesh Bhuriya’s cousins is married into Usha’s family. Also, the distance between Salapada and Patra village in MP, where Bhuriya lives, are located just about 3 km away from each other. We have formed four major teams of the Local Crime Branch (LCB), Special Operations Group and the Dahod taluka division police to find the bride. Four minor teams are also gathering human intelligence within Dahod.”
Bhandari added that the police suspect the accused may have taken the woman to Madhya Pradesh. “There is a high possibility that the accused have taken away the bride to MP as they hail from there. We are coordinating with the MP police for assistance in the matter. We are confident of tracking the accused down. The four persons held are those who have been identified during the probe. The number of accused could eventually go up,” he said.
The suspects have been charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for abduction with the intention of wrongful confinement (365), criminal conspiracy (120B), and unlawful assembly (143).
