Passports of 11 NRI runaway husbands suspended; 12,000 complaints pending

ACTION OVER PAST WEEK These men have deserted their wives and are settled in foreign countries

CHANDIGARH : With central government officials saying that Non-resident Indian (NRI) men who wed in the country will have to compulsorily register their marriages within a week and update marital status on their passports, the Regional Passport Office (RPO) has suspended passports of 11 such NRI husbands over the past week.

These men have been on the run by dodging their wives and the authorities and reached foreign countries.

HT recounts some of these cases and finds that the women have been put through endless agony. What’s worse, the number of such complaints that are pending is humungous.

“There are nearly 12,000 such cases, pending for action, under the RPO, Chandigarh, which has jurisdiction over 24 districts in Punjab and Haryana in addition to Chandigarh,” says Regional Passport Officer (RPO) Sibash Kabiraj.

MATRIMONIAL FOR 2ND MARRIAGE

Little did Charu (name changed), a MTech from Bathinda, know what she was getting into when she married Trilochan Goel, a Surrey (Canada) resident, on September 28, 2017.

“The match was arranged through a matrimonial advertisement. They wanted only my belongings and gifts, as even his parents knew of his first wife in Canada,” she says.

She added that within a month of the marriage, her husband and mother-in-law had assaulted her.

“I conceived and was sent to my parents’ home. He visited my parents twice, but only to get me to give him the wedding gifts that I had. By December, I knew of his first wife in Canada,” she adds. Charu alleges that when confronted, Goel fled to Canada.

What Charu will never forget is the call to her from his first wife from Canada saying, “My man has reached me, you now search for yours.”

A WIFE’S ENDLESS WAIT ON KARWA CHAUTH

Niharika (name changed), an MEd from Kaithal, was married to Haryana police head constable, Rahul Chauhan, from Amin village in Kurukshetra, in 2012. She was not aware that Chauhan planned to go to the US with help from his paternal uncle.

Last year, Chauhan disappeared on the day of the Karwa Chauth, turning her life into an endless wait.

Since September 1, 2017, Rahul has not joined duty. On filing a missing report, she was told that her husband had managed to flee the country on fake documents. The panchayat decided that she had to stay at her in-laws, where she was tortured. She managed to flee and is now forced to live a listless life.

3-TIME MARRIED MAN DESERTS WOMAN

Namita (name changed again), an MSc from Budhlada, was married to Kulpreet Singh, an Australian national in October 2013. Kulpreet, though, was already married, thrice. A week after marriage, he disappeared. A year later, Namita was sent divorce papers. A court has dismissed the case.

In this case, her mother-inlaw, Preetam Kaur’s passport, was revoked, as Kulpreet is an Australian citizen.