Facebook investigation

Social networking sites are not just for chatting with your friends. They can also be used to trap wayward husbands, as one woman from Coimbatore discovered. With the help of Facebook, she was able to trace her husband who abandoned her a year ago, moving to Saudi Arabia, where he planned to remarry.


When Mahalakshmi, the young mother, got wind of her husband's plans to remarry, she lodged a complaint with the city police commissioner.  she fell in love with R S Karthikeyan of Uthamasolapuram in Salem, who sold rods for a living, and married him in June, 2008. A year later, they had a baby girl.

Trouble erupted when Karthikeyan and his parents demanded 15 sovereigns of gold and `1 lakh as dowry from Mahalakshmi's parents. Since the latter could not provide the dowry, Karthikeyan refused to let his wife visit her parents. He also abused her often. When an anguished Mahalakshmi informed her parents about the abuse, they asked both mother and daughter to leave immediately and come stay with them. However, Karthikeyan refused to let his wife take their child Nimisha. Mahalakshmi filed a complaint with the police and was able to rescue her daughter from her father in 2009.

Meanwhile, with the help of the police, Mahalakshmi thwarted her husband's attempts to remarry. Having received a severe warning from the police, he agreed to live with his wife again. However, the happiness was short-lived. In a drunken fit, Karthikeyan thrashed his wife and drove both mother and child out of the house. A month later, he visited his wife and gave her his phone number. Mahalakshmi could not reach him at this number.

When Mahalakshmi got wind of her husband's marriage plans in Saudi Arabia from a friend who refused to give her his contact details, an idea to trap him struck her. Knowing that Karthikeyan had a Facebook account, she created a false account under her relative, Satish's name, but he refused to fall prey to her tactics. She immediately changed her tracks by creating a fake profile of a suitable bride and sent him love messages. This time around, Karthikeyan readily departed with his contact details.

Soon after, Mahalakshmi called him. A shocked Karthikeyan informed her that he was keen on getting married again. He promised to compensate her adequately. An angry Mahalakshmi petitioned the city police commissioner. A case has been registered with the all-woman police station at R.S.Puram.