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Moga (Punjab):
Two men of the district are locked in a court battle over their
"marriages" to an NRI girl, with one of them claiming
he had not divorced her.
The legal
battle concerns Maninder Kaur from Abotsford, near Surrey
in Canada, who arrived here in August 2003 and reportedly
fell in love with Nirmal Singh.
The couple
reportedly got married in a temple in Chamba on August 26,
2003.
After
a short while both Singh and Kaur moved the Punjab and Haryana
High Court seeking protection, claiming a threat to their
lives as the two had married against the wishes of their parents.
The Court
accordingly directed Moga's Senior Superintendent of Police
to provide adequate security to them.
After
a few months, Kaur's mother Joginder Kaur sent a message to
her daughter that her father was seriously ill and wanted
to see her.
When Maninder
came to the house of her parents here, they allegedly forced
her daughter's to file an affidavit saying she never wanted
to "marry" Nirmal and had been "forced to marry
him at gun point".
Maninder's
parents subsequently married her off to one Sukminder Singh
of Mehna village on December 21, 2004.
After
about a month of her second marriage, the girl flew back to
Canada. When Nirmal Singh came to know about the development
he moved Judicial Magistrate's Court here seeking restoration
of conjugal rights and also alleged that her second marriage
was illegal as no divorce had been taken.
The Court
in February 2005 asked the second groom Sukminder to deposit
his passport and also asked him not to leave the country without
its permission.
Sukminder
had got his marriage to Maninder registered in the office
of Registrar of Marriages on January 18, 2005. When Nirmal
Singh moved the Moga Court, the NRI girl's mother Joginder
Kaur also petitioned the High Court taking the plea that the
first marriage was performed under pressure at gun point.
She claimed the second marriage was the "real one".
The High
Court in its order a few days back has fixed October 15, 2007
as the next date of hearing the matter. (Agencies)
Published:
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
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