Hours after a group of bike-borne men in Dahod allegedly stopped an SUV (sports utility vehicle) with a newlywed couple aboard, abducted the bride and fled, police said on Monday that four suspects have been detained. Eight police teams have been formed to trace the woman, officials added. The accused are said to be related to the woman. The abduction happened on Sunday night when a procession was passing through Navagam, said police. A group of about 15 armed men on bikes stopped the vehicle, and then kidnapped Usha, the 22-year-old bride. In his complaint at the Katvara police station, Rohit Amaliyar, the 23-year-old groom, named five key suspects. Prime accused Mahesh Bhuriya, Nilesh Bhabhor, Naresh Bhabhor, Shailesh Mavi, and Jitendra Bhabhor, along with around 10 other people, were mentioned in the complaint. He alleged Bhuriya and others stopped their vehicle near Navagam at around 9 pm on Sunday. Amaliyar, who works as a finance executive in Godhra, had been engaged to the bride for over a year, the FIR states, and the marriage was solemnised on Sunday. The bride hails from Salapada, the last village of Dahod district near the border with Madhya Pradesh. "Just as our vehicle was about to turn towards my village of Bhatiwada, a dozen motorcycles arrived behind us and some overtook our vehicle and blocked the road, forcing the driver to brake. I identified Mahesh Bhuriya, a resident of Patra village in Jhabhua district of Madhya Pradesh. He pulled out the keys of our vehicle. He then opened the rear passenger's door on the driver's side and dragged my wife out of the car. When I asked another accused, Nilesh Bhabhor, why he was doing this to us, the accused remained silent and Bhuriya forcefully took my wife forcefully on a motorcycle driven by Nilesh Bhabhor.," Amaliyar said. "The other accused, who accompanied them, also stopped the other vehicles of our procession from moving ahead until the accused disappeared from sight. This was a premeditated plan to abduct my wife while we were on our way to my house to start our new life,” he added. A total of eight police teams were formed to trace the missing bride while four men were detained. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Dahod Division, Jagdishsinh Bhandari told The Indian Express, "We have identified a total of eight other accused in the case. Of them, four have been rounded up so far. Primary investigation has revealed that Mahesh Bhuriya is the prime accused. Usha and the abductors are distant relatives and one of Mahesh Bhuriya's cousins is married into Usha's family. Also, the distance between Salapada and Patra village in MP, where Bhuriya lives, are located just about 3 km away from each other. We have formed four major teams of the Local Crime Branch (LCB), Special Operations Group and the Dahod taluka division police to find the bride. Four minor teams are also gathering human intelligence within Dahod." Bhandari added that the police suspect that the accused may have escaped to Madhya Pradesh with the woman. "There is a high possibility that the accused have taken away the bride to MP as they hail from there. We are coordinating with the MP police for assistance in the matter. We are confident of tracking the accused down. The four persons held are those who have been identified during the probe. The number of accused could eventually go up," he said. The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for abduction with the intention of wrongful confinement (365), criminal conspiracy (120B), and unlawful assembly (143).
