JOIN USNearly three years after he got his son married, retired Additional Director General (ADG) of Police Ashok Kumar Gupta and his family have been slapped with a dowry case.
So grave are the charges against them that the Chattisgarh police came knocking on their doors, but the family gave the police a slip.
An FIR has been lodged against him, his wife Asha Gupta and son Anirudh by the ex-IPS officer’s daughter-in-law Samiksha at Raipur where she now reportedly stays with her parents.
The girl, who was married to Anirudh in May 2010, has alleged in her complaint that she and her father Vimal Chandra Gupta were being tortured for dowry as her father could pay only Rs 15 lakh instead of the promised sum of Rs 25 lakh.
The complainant has accused her husband of entering into a live-in relationship with a California-based girl, and, therefore had been harassing her.
The IO from Raipur said that during the investigation it came to light that the new relationship in Anirudh’s life was the main reason for girl’s torture.
“Samiksha left her in-law’s house on December 4, 2011. Since then she has made numerous attempt for truce, but to no avail. I have, therefore, come here to arrest Gupta and his family,” said Pratima.
Anirudh’s mother Asha though admitted that a cruelty case had been filed against her and the family by her daughter-in-law under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but she said the police team, which came here from Raipur to arrest them, did not have a warrant.
Dismissing torture charge as baseless, the wife of the retired ADG said the investigating officer Pratima had come here for the third time and had been pressurising them to reach a compromise by paying Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore to Samiksha.
“We never took any money as dowry. But her father Vimal Gupta had recently asked, through mail, for a hefty amount for divorce. I told him to get his daughter treated by a psychiatrist,” said Asha, who too has lodged a counter-FIR in Patna against her daughter-in-law.