The Gujarat high court (HC) has ordered a married man in Ahmedabad to pay half the amount spent by the state government to find a woman with whom he eloped more than seven months ago.
Raghabhai Parmar is said to have vanished with the 20-year-old woman from Rajkot city in May 2021. According to a report, the police worked for seven months to find the woman who had eloped with Parmar.
Unable to trace his daughter, the father approached the Gujarat high court for help.
The woman was tracked down and returned to her parents after a seven months-long police search. The high court discovered that Parmar was already married to someone else during the investigation.
Rajkot Police told the Gujarat High Court that officers spent 17,170 hours on the seven-month investigation, which was followed by a 19-day inquiry. They also stated that Rs 42,000 was spent on the case.
In addition, the expenses incurred to remain physically present before the court ran up to Rs 75,000.
This meant, a total of Rs 1,117,500 was spent to bring the woman back to her family.
The high court decided to recover the amount spent to trace her from Parmar. According to reports, the recovery order was also a punishment for eloping with the woman and exploiting her despite being married.
That’s not all. The woman’s father told the court that he had spent Rs 8.06 lakh on his own to find his daughter.
The high court allowed the father to claim the damages by approaching the appropriate court.
“Though we could have although directed the entire amount to be paid by the petitioner, we deem it appropriate to direct 50% of the said amount which shall be sum of Rs 55,000,” the court order read.