Chennai: An international couple was arrested on Tuesday after they created a ruckus at the Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO) Chennai located at Shastri Bhavan in Nungambakkam. The couple allegedly mistook the Rs 1,800 penalty demanded from them for an official process as bribe and entered into an argument with the officials there.
However, the argument took an ugly turn when the couple started to videograph the officials and the building and later bit a lady head constable on duty there when she tried to intervene.
The duo was identified as Morales Lorca Byron Alberto, a Chilean national and his wife Deanne Michelle, a US national. Deanne, a speech therapist hired by a leading industrialist in the city to help his daughter has been staying in the city for the past five months, police said. Her husband, Alberto had come to the city three months ago to visit his wife and had not registered with the FRRO officials here, police investigations revealed.
On Tuesday morning, around 10 am, the couple had approached the FRRO office, where they were told that they had to pay Rs.1,800 as a penalty for not registering their stay here, a senior police official said. However, the couple had allegedly refused to pay and had argued with the officials to enquire with their consulate.
The argument had escalated and the lady started to videograph the officials there, when the lady head constable deputed there tried to intervene asking her to stop videographing.
During the course of the event, Deanne had bitten the woman constable’s hand after which the couple was taken to the Nungambakkam police station where a case was registered against the couple for preventing a government servant from executing duties and later let out on bail, a police official said. “The lady constable is out of danger, but is still shocked from the incident,” the official added.
