Title: Ex-boy friend
lands in jail for kidnapping Indian girl
Author: A Correspondent
Date: Houston - INDIA
HERALD
Date: February 11, 2000
Twenty-year-old Ikram
Mohammed Imaduddin, a Fort Bend County resident, accused of kidnapping
19-year-old Shalu Aggarwal, a North Harris County resident, is in Harris
County jail.
Imaduddin was produced
before Judge Ted Poe at the 228th district criminal court who set the bond
at $150,000. On Tuesday, Feb. 8, Imaduddin was still in custody.
Imaduddin, said to be
an ex-boyfriend of Shalu Aggarwal, entered her home by breaking a window
on Jan. 30. He used a stun gun to threaten the mother and the daughter,
a Harris County Sheriff's Department spokesman said.
Imaduddin also cut the
telephone line. During the scuffle, the mother broke her leg. He zapped
the girl with a stun gun and drove away with her, the official said.
Two days later, Imaduddin
took Shalu Aggarwal out. He went to a Super K-Mart on Westheimer, leaving
her behind in the car, sheriff's detectives said.
Shalu Aggarwal was not
friendly with Imaduddin and she sought help from the customer service booth
at K-Mart. The security called the police and Aggarwal was rescued. Sensing
trouble, Imaduddin fled the scene, sheriff's detectives said.
Charges of kidnapping
and burglary were filed against Imaduddin, whose parents live near Bissonnet
and Highway 6 in Southwest Houston, in Fort Bend County.
On Feb. 3, Imaduddin
turned himself in at the sheriff's department.
The case is under investigation
by the sheriff's homicide division. Imamuddin is due to appear before Judge
Poe on Feb. 14.
Shalu Aggarwal lives
with her mother, who is single.
Indian community leaders,
disturbed by the criminal act went to the rescue of the mother and met
with the sheriff's department officials inquiring about future protection
for the family.
Devika Patel, speaking
on behalf of the Hindus of Greater Houston, says there is a growing concern
about the reports of several local teenage Hindu girls who have left their
families. Some of these girls are the daughters of single mothers who have
had to cope with multiple responsibilities. In these cases the families
also may not have had strong support systems as the extended family systems
in India have traditionally provided.
"We urge the entire Hindu
community to consider what can be done to provide the social support that
will help teenage girls, especially in single-parent families, to understand
the consequences of dating and/or marrying young men who are not respectful
of their religious and cultural traditions.
"We also urge the community
to reconsider what may be the communities' responsibility in providing
the support needed by such families which may be at risk for the breakup
of the nuclear family due in part to lack of an effective extended family
system," Patel says.
