Lucknow: On their way to court, newly-weds end lives

LUCKNOW: A couple, who had eloped and married against their parents’ wishes, committed suicide by consuming a poisonous substance while being brought to Lucknow from Bareilly by a police escort team to be produced before the court on Monday.
Police said they were bringing the woman to produce her before the court as her mother had lodged a case of her abduction in August.
Later in the evening, a joint team of Lucknow and Bareilly police recovered sulphas tablets from the room where the couple lived.
The deceased were identified as Vikas Soni (34) of New Premnagar in Krishnanagar and Parul Rawat (32) of Thakurganj.
Deputy commissioner of police, central, Somen Barma said Vikas and Parul had eloped a few months ago and married against the wish of their families.
“They were staying at a house in Bareilly. After Parul went missing, her mother filed a complaint after which the court directed Krishnanagar police to recover the girl and present her before it,” Barma told TOI.
After the couple was traced in Bareilly, a police team was dispatched to bring them to Lucknow.
“The cops were in a private vehicle and the woman’s brother and her brother-in-law were also present with them. As Parul insisted, Vikas also accompanied the police team,” he said.
The DCP said during the journey Parul started vomiting and Vikas’s condition also started deteriorating after some time.
When asked, Parul and Vikas informed cops that they had consumed poisonous substance. Cops took them to KGMU’s Trauma Centre but they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Lucknow police commissioner Sujeet Pandey confirmed that the couple had consumed poison which they also confessed in the presence of their relatives.