A couple from the Andaman Islands eloped and reached Chennai harbour by ship on Tuesday only to find the girl’s father waiting with police.
The businessman father of the girl who had eloped with the man from Tirunelveli had flown to Chennai and reached the harbour before the ship berthed.
Robert, who said he was a businessman in Andaman Islands, approached the police saying that a man from Tamil Nadu had ‘abducted’ his 19-year-old daughter, a Plus Two student, and asked police to ‘rescue’ her.
The police spotted his daughter, Alka Mary, and her ‘abductor’ Muthu Niwas Ali, a car driver, as soon as the passengers started disembarking from the ship.
“We detained the two. The girl and the 24-year-old man informed us that they had married on board,” the police said.
The two told police that they were in love with each other for the last three years. When the girl’s family learnt about the affair six months ago, they were prevented from meeting each other.
The two, with the help of their friends, ‘escaped’ from the Island and left for Chennai on a ship on March 31. The girl’s parents realised that they had eloped only much after the two had left the island. “The girl’s parents asked her friends who said that the two had left for Chennai on a ship. Her father flew to Chennai and reached before the ship berthed,” the police said.
The girl categorically told police that she did not plan to return to the Island with her father. “She said she married her lover and planned to go to Tirunelveli. We let the couple go,” the police said.