World | India
Lovestruck Indian Army doctor fakes suicide and lands in jail
In a plot straight out of Bollywood, an Indian Army doctor faked his suicide to elope with a senior officer's wife but failed to factor in sleuths of the military intelligence who tracked him down and jailed him.
- IANS
- Published: 00:08 April 14, 2008
New Delhi: In a plot straight out of Bollywood, an Indian Army doctor faked his suicide to elope with a senior officer's wife but failed to factor in sleuths of the military intelligence who tracked him down and jailed him.
In between, the doctor, a major in the Army Medical Corps, even set up practice as a cancer surgeon at a hospital in Sangli in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. So confident was he of the ruse that he didn't even think of changing his name.
Ingenious ploy
The story, details of which have just come to light, begins last June when the major, then posted at an army hospital in Assam's Tinsukia district, crafted what he thought was an ingenious ploy to quit the army.
The officer's car was found on the banks of the Brahmaputra River with a "suicide" note saying he was unhappy with his life and was taking the "extreme step".
Three months later, intelligence sleuths tracked him down to a private hospital in Sangli, where he had begun life anew as a surgeon.
The major was arrested in September 2007 and cashiered from service earlier this year.
Detailed investigation had led to the arrest, but the missing link in the story was the wife of a colonel from the Regiment of Artillery who had also disappeared at the same time and was found to be living with the major as his "wife" in Sangli.
Sensitive case
The names of the two individuals have been kept under wraps given the sensitive nature of the case.
Sources say the dual disappearances raised the antennae of the agents, who "meticulously" followed this lead.
After zeroing in on the major in Sangli, they established a surveillance network and exposed the officer.
Investigations revealed that the major, whose wife was posted on a UN mission, fell in love with the wife of a colonel who was also posted abroad on a UN mission - and cooked up a plan to desert the army and begin life afresh.
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