Thiruvananthapuram: “Love is blind” goes the old saying and it happened in Kerala’s sleepy village in Palakkad, where a Muslim man looked after and concealed his Hindu wife for a decade.
She was tucked away inside his room for 10 years, without getting noticed by anyone including the latter’s parents and his mentally challenged sister.
Speaking to IANS, Deepukumar, SHO, Nenmara Police station, the investigating officer in the case, said that nobody at first believed what happened in that village, but that was the truth.
“There were two ‘missing’ cases registered in this police station. One was registered 10 years back, when 18-year-old Sajitha was reported missing and the other was in March this year, when 34-year-old Rahman had gone missing,” said Deepukumar.
Things began to unfurl when Rahman was spotted by his brother on Tuesday and soon he alerted the police, and later the mystery was unravelled.
The police have also found that the couple had shifted from his house to a rented house in another place, three months back and were living alone.
“Rahman was in love with Sajitha and 10 years back she came to his room. It’s a tiled three-room house, where Rahman was living with his parents and mentally challenged sister. During the day, Rahman’s parents used to go out for work, and he used to keep his room locked.
“After we took both of them to his house where they had lived for 10 years, they told us how they had used the window of the house as a door to go out of the room in the night to buy essentials for the woman,” added Deepukumar.
“Later, we took them before the Magistrate and the woman said that she wants to live with her husband to which the court agreed and she was allowed to go with him. We have now closed the cases,” said the SHO.
Rahman told the media that he feared his parents might not like his relation with Sajitha, so he had to resort to this.
“On and off I used to go for work, but I always made it a point to return by early evening. I am engaged in electrical work,” added Rahman.
Expressing happiness, Sajitha said now she feels her ordeal is over.
“When he used to go out for work, I spent my time watching TV using headphones. When he went for work, he used to keep food for me in the room. Now after the intervention of the police, I feel I am free. My parents are also happy,” said Sajitha.
Sajitha’s father said they are extremely happy that they have found their daughter.
“We felt she had died. We never would have had any problem if she wanted to live with him. Now everything is over and we are all happy,” said her father.