Ahmedabad, India - Haresh Lilani has not seen his wife Sudha for nearly a year now. This 45-year old resident of Adipur in Kutch, has moved court against a prominent spiritual sect, alleging that his wife is 'captive' in one of their centres here.
Lilani has appealed to the metropolitan court, accusing three members of the sect under sections 365, 509 and 114 of the IPC, of kidnapping his wife. He claims that after suffering from five consecutive miscarriages during past 10 years of their married life, Sudha was emotionally disturbed and had started seeking solace by frequenting religious places.
"She became quiet and often complained that she did not like Kutch. She wanted to go to her parents' place at Sardarnagar in Ahmedabad, therefore, I rented a house in the same locality and shifted her here two years back. Since I used to work as a chief technician at IFFCO, I visited Ahmedabad only during vacations," Lilani said.
Religiously-inclined Sudha had reportedly started visiting the sect's centre here. While Lilani was unaware that his wife spent long hours at the sect's centre, Sudha's father Arjan Motwani objected to this and asked his son-inlaw to intervene in the matter.
Lilani reached Ahmedabad on September 9, 2004 and asked Sudha to stop going to such places. "We had a tiff that night and when I woke up next morning, she was missing. I started searching for her, but no one knew of her whereabouts. Following a tip off from a friend, I started keeping an eye on the sect centre.
I saw Sudha at the Lotus home at Sardarnagar on October 5, 2004 and called out to her. Though she responded and tried to look out for me, she was forcibly dragged into the centre by some members of the sect. Later, when I approached them, they denied that Sudha was there and threw me out of the centre," Lilani said.
Lilani claimed that he was not entertained at the Sardarnagar police station when he approached them to file an FIR against the sect.
After consulting some advocates, Lilani moved the Gujarat High Court on January 5 this year,which issued notices to the police on January 11 and directed the then additional police commissioner of Shahibaug police station, Parixita Gurjar, to investigate the case.
Lilani alleged that the police officials succumbed to pressure from the well-connected sect, and refused to take action against the centre. Gurjar, however, said, "We were not able to find Sudha at any of the sect centres."
In his 14-page appeal, Lilani has mentioned that his friend Prem Kumar Dangar from Gandhidham, saw a whitesari-clad-Sudha at the sect's Maninagar centre on August 22, when he was in the city for some work. "I went to the centre the next day, but was thrown out," said Lilani.
When contacted, the zonal head of the sect, whose name figures in the FIR, told TOI, "You can come and check all our centres to know that this man is lying."