Jilted lover slits wrist at court

Vikas Kumar Verma’s, 31, tale of love took a gory twist on Wednesday morning when he slit his wrist outside courtroom 28 of the Bombay High Court. He was rushed to GT Hospital.

Vikas case was listed at number 17 before a division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice DB Bhosale, but he injured himself when sweepers were still dusting the premises.

He was brought back at 3pm with seven stitches on his left wrist and a bandage. He said he did the act because he loved Kavita (name changed), 18, and her parents did not let her talk to him.

On January 15, Vikas eloped with Kavita from Pune and kept her away from her parents for two months. After her parents filed a missing complaint with the Yerwada Police Station in Pune against Vikas and his family, his parents applied for anticipatory bail which is when Kavita was produced before the court and her parents knew of her whereabouts. His parents’ anticipatory bail application was rejected by the trial court.

They subsequently approached the High Court. Kavita had earlier filed an affidavit stating that she was wiling to stay with Vikas but when the High Court judges spoke to her in their chamber on March 28, and she told them that she wanted to go back to her house.

There was high drama in the courtroom as the judges interrogated Kavita on Wednesday afternoon.

“He and his parents are the culprits. He took me away forcefully and did not let me contact my parents for two months,” she told the court. While they were incognito, he took her to Coimbatore, Gwalior, Basti in UP and Mumbai, she added.

“He used to beat me up and lock up in a room,” she said. However, advocate for Vikas’s father Rameshchandra Verma, MS Mohite said that her statements had changed after previous orders of the court. “When I met both the girl and the boy after the petition was filed they both had said they wanted to get married,” Mohite said.

However, Kavita said that she went with him because he used to emotionally blackmail her and threaten to commit suicide. She also submitted to court a letter maligning her that he circulated on her campus. “He is mentally sick,” Kavita’s father said. Vikas and Kavita had known each other for 4-5 years as they lived in the same Air Force colony in Delhi. He was working in a call centre in Noida and she a student of engineering in Pune. Both their fathers are Air Force Officers and Kavita’s father was later transferred to Pune. When Vikas was interrogated by court, he said he resorted to the step to end the ordeal. His parents filed the petition for quashing of the complaint filed against them.

“If I end my life, everyone’s problem will be solved,” Vikas said. The court appointed senior counsel Shirish Gupte as mediator in the case. The court told both the parties not to pursue the case on vendetta. The parties will meet with Gupte on Thursday and the case will be heard on Friday.