UK
NRI arrested for criminal intimidation and cheating wife in India
NRI caught in Punjab for
betraying wife
Chandigarh, Aug 30, 2008
IANS
Baldev Singh Sahota, a Britain-based
non-resident Indian (NRI), has been arrested in Punjab after his
estranged wife Archana Kumar complained of criminal intimidation
and cheating, the police said Sunday.
"We have registered a case and booked Sahota for criminal
intimidation, cheating, producing false documents and various
other offences. It is too early to disclose anything, as our investigations
are still on. We are scrutinizing every detail of the case,"
a police official in Mohali town, adjoining Chandigarh, told IANS
here.
Sahota, a resident of Coventry town near Birmingham, was arrested
Saturday.
"Archana Kumar along with her son Saksham went to Britain
in September 2003 on tourist visa. She met Sahota, a friend of
her uncle, there. He took the passports of Archana and Saksham
to prepare an application for an asylum for them in Britain,"
Jitender Singh Cheema, a Delhi-based lawyer, told reporters here.
Though Archana alleged that Sahota raped her for two years under
the pretext of marrying her, she said she did not press the charge
against him in Britain due to her language handicap and because
of threats that her son would be eliminated if she complained.
"I could not complaint against him as I do not know English.
He said that he will kill my son if I go to the police,"
she said.
Kumar said she was then married off to his nephew Amritpal Singh
in 2005. Subsequently she was asked to come back to India.
Later, Sahota returned to India, gave Archna fake documents of
divorce from her husband and married her in March 2006 at Zirakpur,
near here, she said.
"He harassed me both physically and emotionally. He beat
me so brutally that many times I had to be admitted in hospitals
for months. He told me that he has links with Punjab's politicians
and terrorists," she said.
Archana said Sahota was chairman of the Indian Council in Coventry
and had good links with the police there.
Archana said all money from a lottery worth 600,000 pounds, which
Saksham had won in Britain, was also pocketed by Sahota.