PATNA: A man from Jharkhand posed as a former MLA and spent a week at a government-run guesthouse in Bihar with a woman abducted from Asansol in West Bengal before leaving without paying the bills.
After the fraud was exposed, police in Bihar’s Bhojpur district are on the lookout of the man, Amarendra Kumar, a resident of Ranchi. He identified himself as a former MLA from Jharkhand and spent a week at the circuit house in Ara, the headquarters town of Bhojpur district, from December 14, said sources.
Police were alarmed when they learnt that the young woman who was with Kumar at the circuit house had been abducted from her house in Asansol. A police official in Ara said a case of abduction lodged at a police station in Asansol pertained to the missing of this woman. The case was lodged by the woman’s father, Vijay Shah, on November 6, he added.
Both Kumar, a trader of spices in Ranchi, and the woman from Asansol have been traceless since they left the circuit house in Ara on December 21, said the official.
In fact, the entire fraud came to light after Kumar’s wife, Shalini, reached the circuit house and enquired about her husband hours after he left. She told police that Kumar had been away from his home in Ranchi’s Dhurwa area for nearly six months and that she had been receiving calls from Ranchi police regarding the abduction in Asansol, allegedly committed by Kumar.
“When I received frequent calls from Ranchi police, I called my husband and he said he was in Ara. He asked me to come to Ara, but I did not find him when I reached the circuit house,” said Shalini, mother of a seven-year-old girl, to police officials at Nawada police station in Ara on Monday.
Bhojpur district magistrate Sanjeev Kumar on Tuesday ordered a probe into how Amarendra Kumar was granted accommodation at the circuit house. Bhojpur police has also got in touch with their counterparts in Ranchi and Asansol in trying to locate Amarendra Kumar.