All for love: MP takes on Capt

A BJP MP has locked horns with Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh to defend the ‘‘love marriage’’ of a migrant labourer from...

A BJP MP has locked horns with Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh to defend the ‘‘love marriage’’ of a migrant labourer from his Motihari constituency in Bihar.

A Punjab police team had come to Motihari three weeks ago to arrest Chunnu Srivastav after warrants were issued against him on April 9 for abducting a minor girl from Patiala. But Motihari MP Radha Mohan Singh alleges Punjab police ‘‘harassed villagers of Sewapur, when they did not find Chunnu’’. He claims Chunnu had eloped with the girl and ‘‘it was a case of love marriage and not abduction’’.

Irked by Singh’s protests, Amarinder has charged the MP with ‘‘not cooperating with police’’. He said yesterday that he would seek the Bihar CM’s intervention in the matter.

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Sources say Chunnu was working in Lakshmi namkeen factory in Patiala when he disappeared with the girl, who her parents say is a minor. Patiala police, which went to Sewapur with Motihari police, found Chunnu’s relatives had fled and raided the village. ‘‘The village mukhya and block president complained to me of police harassment. Then I intervened,’’ says Singh. The SP of Motihari, Kamal Kishore Singh, said it was not up to the police to decide whether it was a love marriage or not. ‘‘The Patiala police came with an arrest warrant. And it was our duty to implement it,’’ he said.

The SP added that the girl’s uncle has lodged another complaint with the Motihari police, claiming that he was kidnapped by some villagers of Sewapur when he came looking for his niece. While the Punjab CM has decided to talk to his Bihar counterpart, police here are not aware of any such dialogue. ‘‘I am not aware of any call from the Punjab CM,”said Additional DG Rithu Raj.