Keeping a beard or a sporting a clean shaven look might be a personal choice but for one man from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, the mere action of choosing to keep facial hair cost him his wife, if a police complaint by him is to be believed.
A report in The Times of India said a man, identified as one Mohammad Shakir, hailing from Meerut's Lisari Gate area has filed a police complaint, saying his wife ran away with his brother because he has a beard while his brother did not.
Married to 25-year-old Arshi a few months ago, Shakir said he frequently had 'marital disputes' with her. The reason? He had a beard to which his new bride objected and said she didnt like the look. She used to ask him to shave it off and would also 'threaten' that she would leave him if he didn't do as asked, Shakir told the police.
Shakir said while he didn't take her remarks seriously, in early February, she went 'missing'. He told the police that he suspects she ran away with his younger brother who sports a clean-shaven look.
Shakir told the police that he searched for the two for at least three months before he gave up and then approached the cops.
SP (city) Ayush Vikram Singh told TOI that a missing persons report was filed, and investigations are underway. "Appropriate action will be taken based on the finding," the publication quoted him as saying.
A senior officer from Lisari Gate police station also spoke to the publication on update on the duo. "Technical surveillance indicates the last known location of the pair was in Ludhiana, Punjab. We are working with local authorities there to trace them," he told the paper.