Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 21, 2004
The Naroda-Patiya love story has
taken a new twist with the 22-year-old youth-who was accused of kidnapping
the girl he loves and has been in judicial custody for a month - getting
bail. But, the girl's still stuck in a shelter, they haven't been allowed
to meet and her family insists that she was kidnapped.
Sandeep was granted bail after the
police produced a medical report in the court, which confirmed that there
had been no sexual contact between the couple. But despite Shaahin Malek-the
girl he saved from a mob in post-Godhra rampage-telling the police that
she was not kidnapped, the police are preparing a charge sheet against
Sandeep.
"So there's more trouble ahead for
a poor man like me.. Sandeep is back, but we are still worried as charges
against him are yet to be dropped," Purshottambhai Chauhan, Sandeep's father,
said.
Sandeep has not been allowed to
meet Shaahin who is still at the Nari Sanrakshan Grih in Odhav.
Both the police and Shaahin's family
maintain that she is underage-two months below 18-though she says she's
above 18. There's no document to prove her claim.
"We are preparing a chargesheet
against him. The girl's family still insists that she was kidnapped by
Sandeep," says Naroda police inspector V.S. Gohil.
Shaahin had told the police that
she was staying at aunt's house. "But this aunt now says that Shaahin
was never there during this time, " Gohil says.
