Punjab has only 159 registered cases of abandoned NRI brides in 3 years

Though most of these cases are now being tried in courts, in several of these, LOCs (Look Out Circular) have not been issued by police, in the absence which, the grooms managed to marry again here in Punjab.JALANDHAR: Though the issue of "holiday brides" (deserted by NRI grooms) has been hogging the limelight in a big way and is considered to be of monstrous magnitude, there are only 159 cases registered against grooms who had dumped their wives back.Manpreet Kaur of Rihana Jattan village near Phagwara said that she got married to Bhupinder Singh, who was in Holland, and was thrown out of her in-laws' house, though her parents had paid over Rs 4 lakh after selling their house. Her husband never bothered to contact her and did not call her there as he had promised. She alleged that he has married again here and had reportedly married five times. When Deo questioned the police officials, it was found that a LOC was yet to be issued. She ordered immediate issuance of LOC.As IG, NRI affairs, Gurpreet Deo held an interaction here on Friday with such deserted brides, 20 of them, along with their kin, turned up from three districts of Doaba region to narrate the issues being faced by them in these cases. A total of 159 such cases were registered in Punjab in the last three years, she said. When asked to comment on the perception that the problem appeared very big but the number of registered cases was low, she avoided comment. However, a police official said that in several cases, compromises were struck between the two sides before registration of FIRs.
Justice is nowhere in sight for Harpreet Kaur of Kala Sanghia village, who got married to Dalwinder Singh, hailing from Sarangwal village near Shahkot and living in Italy. After her marriage, she learned that he was already married and then in 2007, he again married a girl from Rajpura, who was taken to Italy. Her case reached the court in 2009 but is still pending. Deo said that issuing LOC was not part of the standard working of police officials at lower levels so far. They were now sensitizing and training officers at junior levels to issue LOCs at the earliest in such cases to nab such fraudster grooms, who could also be prevented from remarrying.