A man who moved the Delhi High Court to bring back his wife from the custody of her parents disappeared with the woman from the court complex after they were allowed to meet each other.
Stunned, the high court has directed Delhi Police to produce both of them before the court to know their "exact wishes".
On Manish's habeas corpus petition, Delhi Police had brought the woman along with her parents to the court. While the parents denied that their daughter was married to Manish, the woman claimed otherwise and said she wanted to return with her husband.
A division bench of Justice Kailash Gambhir and Justice P.S. Teji, during the hearing, had called the couple in their chamber for counseling on August 24. After talking to them, the bench told them to wait in the courtroom for its order.
However, the couple sneaked out from the court premises on the way from chamber to the courtroom. By the time the judges returned to the courtroom to resume the hearing, they were untraceable.
Noting that the couple was missing, the bench has asked the police to trace them and produce them before the court on September 2.
Manish had eloped with the woman and later married her at an Arya Samaj temple here on May 13 and had also got their marriage registered at Ghaziabad.
Manish alleged that his wife's parents were not happy with their marriage. He alleged that his wife was missing since July 13 when she went to a market and did not return home.
He claimed that his wife was taken to Vadodara in Gujarat by her mother and remained there in illegal captivity. While she was later brought back to Delhi by the city police, Manish had claimed her parents were not allowing her to return to him.
Subsequently, Manish filed a habeas corpus petition in high court seeks direction to the police to produce his legally wedded wife before the court.
It was then that the woman was produced before the court and was allowed to meet with her husband, when they decided to take the matter into their own hands.
(Garima Tyagican be contacted at garima.t@ians.in)
