Chennai: A Telangana man, who had allegedly locked up his wife and daughter inside an apartment in suburban New Perungalathur for over three years without proper food, is now absconding, say police in Chennai. Accused Rameshwar Rao, 40, an M.Com graduate, works with an IT firm in the city and it is suspected that he’s currently in hiding, in Hyderabad. Chennai police formally registered an FIR on Wednesday after the rescued wife (who was discovered on Monday) pleaded with officials not to arrest her husband.
A team from the Tambaram all-women police station had been in touch with Rameshwar Rao since Friday, when wife Priyanka’s father lodged a complaint there. “He even visited the station on Monday and Tuesday,” a source revealed but inspector Pauline, confirmed with DC on Wednesday that Rao was now absconding and that a team has been rushed to Hyderabad to track him. Rao, originally from Warangal, had married Priyanka, 32, in the April of 2004. His parents wanted her to abort a pregnancy when they discovered after a scan that she was carrying the fetus of a baby girl. Priyanka refused and then left for her parents’ home, where she stayed for nearly five years. But after counseling, the couple reconciled and began living together until Priyanka got pregnant again and delivered a baby boy.
Rao sent the boy to stay with his parents and meanwhile started ill-treating Priyanka and daughter Padmaja in Chennai. Mother and daughter were restrained from stepping out of the house and were forced to live inside a room with minimum rations and supply of food. Based on father Raj Narayanan’s complaint, police rescued Priyanka and her daughter on Monday. Priyanka had sought help from a neighbour to contact her father as she was not even allowed access to a phone.
“After her arrival at the police station, she started pleading with us not to arrest her husband and sought help in running the family normally,” police claimed. However, police have now registered case against Rameshwar Rao under various sections, including the harassment Act, wrongful detention and assault.
