Four brokers booked for illegal extortion, hostage-taking after a woman and man eloped and get married

Barwani: Police on Friday registered a case against three persons for allegedly illegally confining and extorting money from a family in the name of a settlement after an adult woman eloped and married a man of her choice, officials said on Friday.Sendhwa rural police station in-charge OP Singh Chaungde told TOI that a case was registered against Ramlal GorelLal, Rakesh and one other under charges related to illegal confinement, assault and extortion, and a search was launched to trace them.He said the incident occurred after an adult woman from Jampati village voluntarily left with a man from Jamniya village. Following this, some residents of Jampati allegedly called members of the man’s family for discussions and demanded Rs 2.5 lakh as part of a “settlement”.When the man’s family expressed inability to arrange the amount, the accused identified as Ramlal, Gorelal and Rakesh, along with another person allegedly held Chetan and Omkar of Jamniya village hostage and threatened not to release them until the money was paid.The accused assaulted and threatened the victims throughout the night. Meanwhile, two other persons, identified as Dimaniya and Sukhlal, managed to escape and approached the police, following which the matter came to light.Barwani Superintendent of Police Padma Vilochan Shukla said police had been receiving repeated complaints from rural areas about middlemen allegedly forcing settlements in elopement cases and extorting arbitrary amounts of money by illegally confining people.He said strict instructions were issued to the Sendhwa Rural police to register a case and take action against those involved.