Prez kin in dowry trouble


Prachi Singh Patil, who was in the news recently for bringing to book a rude auto driver, turns out to be the wife of President Pratibha Patil’s nephew. She has sued his family for dowry harassment

Bangalore Mirror Bureau

Posted On Friday, January 08, 2010 at 02:08:43 AM

President Pratibha Patil’s nephew Rahul G Patil is under investigation by the Bangalore Police in a dowry harassment case. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh and a resident of Navi Mumbai, Prachi Singh Patil has filed a 498 (A) case against her husband Rahul G Patil and his family in Byappanahalli police station under the jurisdiction of which she stays now with her brother.

Prachi came to limelight recently when she got an auto driver arrested for misbehaving with her (see box).

Prachi Singh Patil

According to police, Prachi has not made any reference of her relationship with the President anywhere in her dowry complaint. “It is true that Prachi is a relative of the President. But she has not mentioned the President’s name at any stage. She lodged the complaint months ago and an investigation is on,” said Byappanahalli Police Inspector K V Srinivas.

Prachi married Rahul in 2007. She said in her complaint that their married life was fine till mid 2008 after which problems started cropping up between the two. She alleged that even Rahul’s parents harassed her, forcing her to lodge a complaint against them in Mumbai before she came to Bangalore to stay with her brother, a software engineer who stays in C V Raman Nagar.

The problems continued even after she shifted to Bangalore. Prachi said in her complaint that Rahul and his family even came to Bangalore and harassed her for dowry following with she filed the case of dowry harassment at Byappanahalli police station.

NEPHEW MISSING

Acting on the complaint filed by Prachi, a team of Bangalore police visited Mumbai and Jalgaon where Rahul and family were staying, but had to return empty handed, as the entire family was missing. Sources said Rahul is in South Korea while his family has also left India.

When Bangalore Mirror contacted Prachi, she refused to comment.

A daring woman

Around 11 am on Jan 2, Prachi hired an auto for going to Mayo Hall. After a short distance, she noticed that the metre on the auto was faulty and brought it to the driver’s notice. When she refused to travel further in the auto, its driver Rajendra Prasad insisted that she pay him Rs 50.

Shocked at his insolence, Patil tried to get out of the auto, but Prasad blocked her way and started abusing her. When she tried to evade him, he pulled at her dress, tearing it at the shoulder. Finding that nobody came forward to help her, Prachi took out her cell phone and and started recording the scene. When the matter started getting out of control, she called the police.

Though Prasad fled the scene by the time the police team arrived, he was arrested on Monday from a temple at K R Puram. He has confessed to misbehaving with Prachi. He is now facing charges of molestation, criminal intimidation, assault, robbery and charging extra fare from a passenger.

During the entire episode, neither the police, nor anybody else had any clue that they were dealing with a relative of the president of India.

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