Chandigarh Home Secy has a problem at home

Chandigarh Home Secy has a problem at home
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

LUDHIANA, SEPTEMBER 19: Hardly two days into his new assignment as UT Home Secretary and a month after his marriage to a Ludhiana girl, Raminder Singh Gujral finds himself embroiled in an ugly controversy.

In an FIR registered against his wife, Manpreet Oberoi, her father Surjit Singh Oberoi and one Vishal Aggarwal, the 47-year-old IAS officer from the Haryana cadre, has accused his newly-married wife of ``cheating and concealing the fact of an earlier marriage from him''. Surjit Oberoi and Vishal have been arrested by the police.

Gujral has stated in the FIR that after their marriage was solemnised in the Sector 34 Gurdwara on August 23, the two went to the US for honeymoon, where he came to know about his wife being already married to another person. Manpreet had earlier divorced her first husband, an Army officer, in 1994.

According to Gujral, Manpreet had married Vishal Aggarwal, a resident of Aggar Nagar here, sometime between 1994 and 1998 after her divorce, and the two used to stay together in Delhi where Manpreet was working. She was also using the surname of Aggarwal in her office and had joint accounts with Vishal Aggarwal and her father Surjit Singh Oberoi at Bank of America. She also had a credit card under the name Manpreet Aggarwal.

However, Manpreet's father, a retired deputy labour commissioner and Vishal Aggarwal have denied the allegations. Vishal admits to a live-in relationship with Manpreet during 1994 to 1998, but says he had not kept any contact with her after the two separated in 1998.

On the other hand, Oberoi accused Gujral of being highly suspicious. However, Oberoi could not explain the fact as to how his daughter had been using the surname Aggarwal if she was not married to Vishal. ``Only she can explain these things,'' he said, when asked about his joint account with his daughter where she is using the same surname.

Incidentally, Gujral has supplied all these documents to the police after making inquiries in Delhi and Chandigarh where Manpreet had been staying for the last two years along with her daughter from the first marriage, Mallica. There are several albums with photographs of Vishal and Manpreet, which show her sporting sindoor, at a party to celebrate Mallica's brithday in Delhi.

Manpreet, meanwhile is reportedly in the US where she stayed on even after her husband returned to India to join his new assignment.

According to Gujral, the first indication of something being amiss came when he went to the US embassy to obtain visas for both for the honeymoon trip. He was told by the officers that his wife had been earlier denied visa because despite being a divorcee, she had tried to present herself as a married woman. According to the FIR, Gujral learnt about his wife's second marriage when her relatives in the US spilled the beans.

Gujral was also reportedly upset about the ``free'' lifestyle of Manpreet including smoking and drinking. According to the FIR, he also reportedly told the police that Manpreet has also become pregnant once during her stay with Vishal and she got the fact confirmed from a Ludhiana doctor, and later went for an abortion.

The police have registered a case under section 495/420 and 120-B of IPC against Manpreet and Oberoi.

However, Oberoi alleged that the marriage was arranged at the behest of common friends of his and former UT Chief Secretary A S Chatha, who were asked by Gujral to look for a match for him. ``In fact, it was Gujral who was in a hurry to get married, though I wanted some time to check out his antecedents as some common friends had told us that he had the reputation of being a womaniser,'' Oberoi said, adding that Gujral presented an engagement ring worth Rs 4.50 lakh and ``asked us not to disclose the amount to anyone as it could bring trouble for him.''