Man with multiple wives held in Bengal for ‘abducting’ girl

A man having multiple wives was arrested on Friday from West Bengal’s Purulia district for allegedly abducting a 25-year-old woman from Parsudih police station area in Jamshedpur, police said on Saturday.

Police said the arrested man in the past married other women and sexually exploited girls by promising marriage. His arrest came after the woman’s parents lodged an FIR for rape and abduction on June 7 against the arrested accused, officer in-charge (OC) Rajendra Das said.

“The arrested accused and the abducted girl were brought here Saturday. The man was sent to jail, while the rescued 25-year-old girl was handed over to her parents. The woman’s statement will be recorded in the court on Monday, while her medical tests are being done,” the OC said.

As per available information, the Jamshedpur woman went missing in the first week of June, about a couple days before her parents lodged the FIR. “He befriended the girl from Parsudih while living with his third wife and their two children . He fled the city with the 25-year-old woman, leaving his wife and two children in the lurch. He was moving from one place to another with the woman all this while,” Das said.

The incident led to tension and angry demonstration in front of Parsudih police station, as the woman was from a different community.

Police investigation found that the arrested accused was sent to jail for abducting a girl in Sahibganj district in 2012, the OC said. “This incident was at a time when he was already married to another woman from Malda in West Bengal. The accused confessed that after fleeing his village in Sahibganj’s Radhanagar, he went to Odisha, where he married another girl,” Das said.

The man then came to Jamshedpur, where he was living with his third wife and their two children, police said, adding that all his wives were from different communities and know him by different names.