Ahmedabad: Week on, woman’s abduction turns out to be elopement

Ahmedabad: A week after a 20-year-old woman was thought to have been abducted by the man who was accused of kidnapping and raping her in 2020, it has emerged that the recent disappearance was planned by the two.

The woman lived in the Sabarmati area, where the recent abduction was allegedly staged.

The ACP in charge of L Division, Vani Dudhat, said that the woman was abducted by the man in 2020 when she was just 14 and he was 20.

The accused, identified as Ghevar Singh Gurjar, was charged under the Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and sections relating to rape and abduction. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023, said Dudhat.

The victim of that case married about two years ago, when she turned 18. But she allegedly faced taunts about her 2020 ordeal from her in-laws. So, she obtained a divorce, Dudhat said.

Around a year ago, the woman remarried and began living with her husband in the Sabarmati area.

Gurjar’s story took a turn when he was granted parole to attend to his ailing father in 2024. He jumped parole.

Police have determined that the woman recently contacted Gurjar when she went to her parental home in Rajasthan. She told him that she wanted to leave her husband’s home as she was constantly being harassed.

They planned an elopement from her in-laws’ home in the last week of May when Gurjar arrived with three others. The woman did not resist.

Dudhat said the group went to Maharashtra, where they stayed for some time before returning to Gujarat, where they were detained by Surat police.

The woman did not allege any objectionable conduct from Gurjar or others, Dudhat said. The woman also made it clear that she did not want to go to her parents’ house nor to her in-laws’ residence.

She was subsequently sent to a women’s protection home, Dudhat said.

Gurjar has been sent to judicial custody.