Soap opera type of drama unfolds in kidnap case

Bengaluru: A FIR was filed against Congress leader Divya Prabha along with few of her family members after Divya allegedly abducted her son-in-law in a bid to portray him as mentally ill. This FIR has been registered in Puttenahalli police station in Bengaluru and the drama looks as though it is derived straight out of a badly made soap opera.

According to the police reports on Monday, Divya Prabha's son-in-law, Naveen M Gowda registered the complaint against his wife Spandana and her family members Parashuram, Sparshita, Mahadeva Gowda and Divya. These were named accused in the case along with the doctors of the private hospital involved.

Police stated that Naveen married Spandana in 2019. Since October 2022 however, their marriage saw a bad patch. Both the families tried to correct this relationship by conducting several rounds of negotiations but in vain.

Naveen had alleged that Spandana was involved in an extra-marital affair. He claimed that he found obscene chats on Spandana's mobile phone and since then, he had distanced himself from her.

After this allegation unfolded, few of the accused individuals barged into Naveen's house on December 19, 2022. He was then tied up and forcibly taken in an ambulance to a private hospital in J P Nagar in Bengaluru.

It is learned that the accused individuals made a deal with the doctors at the hospital to make Naveen look mentally unstable and was kept under illegal confinement. The doctors had forcibly administered "treatment" for mental illness on Naveen. He was assaulted when he refused the "medical treatment".

Naveen also alleged that the accused people had demanded him to sign a few papers. Since Naveen did not approve of any of these acts, the accused allegedly created fake documents and forged his signature onto few documents that Naveen refused to sign on.

The complainant was released from the hospital on December 22, 2022 following a Habeas Corpus petition that was filed in the High Court. Naveen has now sought action against the accused individuals and the police have begun investigation on this matter.

This issue has raised suspicion that the accused persons wanted to portray the complainant as mentally ill to cover up the alleged extra-marital affair that Spandana was involved in.