Man held in Kerala 32 years after eloping with Dwarka girl

Rajkot: A man accused of eloping with a 16-year-old girl from Dwarka in 1994 was detained in Kerala after 32 years, after a cold case review by Devbhumi Dwarka district police traced him to Alappuzha.Local crime branch (LCB) sleuths detained Venu D Damodharan, 59, from Cheppad village in Alappuzha district. A case under Indian Penal Code Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (abduction to compel a woman to marry) had been registered against him at Dwarka police station in 1994.According to police, Venu D had come to Dwarka seeking work in a salt company. After failing to secure the job, he began working as an electrician in a nearby village, where he stayed for over two years. During this period, he developed a romantic relationship with the daughter of a colleague. Believing that the girl's family would never allow the match, the two eloped.An FIR was registered at the time, but the couple managed to evade the police. When the case was reopened during a cold case resolution drive, investigators were able to trace Venu's location. When Devbhumi Dwarka LCB and Cyber Crime sleuths reached Cheppad village, Venu produced a death certificate of the girl with whom he had eloped.Venu told police that they had married after eloping and started a new life in Kerala, but the girl died within four years of the wedding. He said he did not remarry and later lived with his brother, helping him rear livestock.Talking to TOI, LCB in-charge police inspector N H Joshi said, "The death certificate has been issued by the local authority, and we have to authenticate it. We also recovered a handwritten accidental death report from police, which is in Malayalam. We will have to translate it. AI doesn't help because it is handwritten."Police have also called the girl's family to record their statements. Preliminary inquiries suggest the family were not in touch with her and were unaware of her death. Venu will be produced in court and face trial for the offences registered against him in 1994.