MADURAI/SIVAGANGA: The weak would never enter the kingdom of love, says Gabriel García Márquez in his monumental Love in the Time of Cholera. When a 22-year-old youth jumped the quarantine facility in Madurai and rode all the way to Sivaganga, the inspiration behind his grievous transgression was love.
The youth had got wind of his lover from Sivaganga getting married to another man on March 30 under parental pressure. Anxious to meet her, he managed to board a flight from one of the hotbeds of infection: Dubai. He landed in Mumbai, from where he reached Madurai on March 21. Unfortunately, he was sent to a quarantine centre at Chinnaudaippu.
However, on Wednesday night he jumped the facility, borrowed his friend’s bike and rode to Sivaganga to meet his lover. Meanwhile, his absence did not go unnoticed, with the Deputy Director of District Health Education raising an alert. The Avaniyapuram police registered a man missing case and alerted the neighbouring Sivaganga police.
By the time a police team nabbed him on Thursday, he had been with the girl for hours. While the youth was brought back to Madurai, the girl was placed under home quarantine in Sivaganga. The police remain tight-lipped on the action to be taken against the youth or whether the girl’s marriage is still on.
All the way to stop lover’s wedding
The youth had got information that his lover from Sivaganga was to marry another man on March 30 under parental pressure. Anxious to meet her, he came to Madurai from Dubai but was quarantined.