Separated by MLA, reunited by court

The District Legal Authority in Guntur on Wednesday reunited a couple who were troubled by a powerful legislator of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

Tadepalligudem’s ruling party MLA Eeli Nani’s daughter Ramya and her husband exchanged garlands in the presence of Judge MV Ramana Kumari and the media at Guntur, 300 km from here.

Ramya said she was sad that she had hurt her father. But she had no other alternative as she and her husband were separated. “We still live under the shadow of fear. But the honourable judge has assured us of police protection,” she said. However, she said she would never go back to her parents.

Ramya complained to the Legal Services Authority in Guntur that she had been kept under “house arrest” by her father since she married her classmate Sandip at Sasi Engineering College, Bhimavaram, in 2008. She told the court that her father, a powerful political leader in West Godavari district, “detained” her at home for five years and also tried to get her remarried.

Their love story took a twist when Ramya escaped from the “custody” of her parents and went underground a week ago. Stung by his daughter’s disappearance, the MLA lodged a kidnap case against Sandeep at Tadepalligudem and allegedly requested the Guntur district police to help him question the youth. Sattenapalle DSP Jagadeeshwar Reddy contacted Sandeep over the phone on Sunday and summoned him to the police station.

The DSP said Sandeep did not turn up. Reddy said they had not tracked him after he switched off his mobile phone. However, Ramya says the police detained Sandeep near Piduguralla and handed him over to her father. Sandeep was not produced before court either in Guntur or in West Godavari.

Meanwhile, a teary-eyed Eeli Nani appeared on almost all TV channels and dismissed the charges. He said he never restricted the movement of his daughter. “We complained to the police as she left home and never returned. Now, she says that we kept her under house arrest... I would not like to see her again in my life,” he said.

Ramya, who was accommodated at the local Women’s Protection Cell by the legal Authority, alleged that her father got Sandip “kidnapped” by police and took him to Tadepalligudem in West Godavari district. Stating that she fears for his life, she urged the authorities to intervene in the matter.

Her ordeal ended after Sandeep appeared before the court in Guntur, exchanged garlands but restrained himself from making a formal compliant against his father-in-law for allegedly kidnapping him.