Karnataka: MLA’s ‘missing’ daughter emerges as newly-wed

MYSURU: A typical filmy scene. Daughter of an MLA, in love with a man, goes ‘missing’. Father files a police complaint. Police are on the lookout. They trace the kin of the boy who have checked into a resort in Mysuru. Police get information that their wedding is scheduled atop Chamundi Hill. A 40-member team of police personnel, accompanied by the girl’s mother, rush to the resort for investigations only to find out that it was a trick to mislead them. 

While this was the scene in Mysuru, the couple ‘emerge’ from Dakshina Kannada, allegedly after tying the knot in a temple there.The girl is Lakshmi Naik, daughter of Mayakonda MLA (Davangere district) Shivamurthy Naik, who is believed to have tied the knot with Kannada film producer P Sundar Gowda. Gowda had produced Duniya Vijay-starrer Maastigudi.

According to the staff members of The Roost Hotel, a resort-cum-restaurant, police came looking for Lakshmi. Gowda’s relatives, about 10 to 12 members, had booked four rooms in the resort and had checked in on Wednesday evening.

Police questioned them and were not ready to believe that Lakshmi and Gowda weren’t there. They checked the footage of the closed circuit TV cameras only then were they convinced that the girl was not there. They later left towards Nagamangala in Mandya district after learning that the marriage was being held there. Later, Lakshmi released a video with her newly-married husband stating, “I am a major and married Sundar Gowda of my own will, without being forced by anybody to do so. Moreover, we are in love with each other and do not want others to be troubled by our marriage.”