Being a police officer in a country as diverse in its quirks as India must be challenging, since it's not an easy ordeal to have to file the most curious of complaints with a straight face.
A case has been reported from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh where a man was beaten up for visiting his girlfriend late at night. This is the tale of Prem Singh, a resident of Nagli village, who was having an affair with Lakshmi, who lives at the Mehendi Nagar Sumali village in Rampur's Azimnagar police station area.
Prem often used to visit his girlfriend at the latter's residence late at night, and as usual as it was routine, he arrived for the affectionate rendezvous past 12 o'clock in the night.
But Fate wasn't smiling so kindly at the couple on this particular night.
Prem was caught by Lakshmi's family at midnight, whereupon they locked him in a room.
According to a report, even before Prem could realise what was going on, the girl's family members lashed out at him inside the room. It was reported that as the clamour reached the neighbourhood, people in and around the vicinity, as incredulous as it sounds, arrived to beat the man up as well.
The case reached the police the next day, when the Lakshmi's kin handed Prem over to the police.
However, the tale does not end here. Fearing a trial, the girl's family quickly realised that the most affordable way out of a potential lawsuit that now seemed inevitable lies in letting Prem marry Lakshmi.
Hence, over the course of one night, the forlorn lover, beaten up on charges of affection, became the son-in-law for the family that had caused him much despair. But they say all is fair in love, which must explain the remarkable pace with which mutual understanding was reached.
Additional Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh said yesterday that the young man and his family were summoned to the police station as soon as the complaint was filed.
It was then that the girl's side decided to proceed with the marriage as a token of understanding, he said.
Prem and Lakshmi tied the wedlock at a small temple in the Azeemnagar area, later in the day. Now if that isn't your typical love affair, there's no other reasonable explanation so as to what is.
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