MLA Eeli Nani disowns daughter

• He says he will never admit her in his house
• Says he only wanted to correct her 'mistake'
• Ramya stands by her house-arrest charge
• Her husband says they should be left alone

Guntur: Tadepalligudem, Eeli Venkata Madhududhana Rao alias Eeli Nani on Wednesday disowned his daughter Ramya, who had made allegations that her father kept her under 'house arrest' and prevented from uniting with her husband Sandeep whom she married when they were engineering classmates. She had even alleged that her father 'kidnapped' her husband and expressed fear that he may even eliminate Sandeep.

The couple united here during the day and exchanged garlands in the presence of lawyers. A In a live show conducted by TV9 with father-daughter duo and Sandeep, Nani said that as a father he only tried to correct the 'mistake' committed by his daughter. He asked why many love marriages were failing and he himself reasoned that the attraction in such cases was mainly due to infatuation. "And as a father, I wanted to set things right. Is'nt it any wrong?" he asked.

Expressing his anguish at the turn of events that defamed his family, he said he learnt about the missing of Ramya from his wife when he was away in Tirumala. "I merely asked the CI to take a complaint from my mother on Sunday (April 20). As parents we're concerned about our daughter's safety in the wake of incidents of recent crimes against women.

Several dignitaries including TTD Chairman Kanumuri Bapiraju and PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana have been calling on me as though someone expired in my family. I have doted on my daughter and thought of building a bright life for her and by correcting her mistake," he said.

Vowing to have nothing to do with his daughter in the future, he said: "None of my family members hereafter will have anything to do with them. They will not interfere anyway with their lives. She does not exist anymore for me. I treat my constituency people as my family members and would devote attention to their well-being. I don't have to explain to anyone for my actions.

Is it a mistake to approach police. There are several incidents of girls returning to their parents after failure of their love marriage. However, even if such a thing happens in my daughter's life, I will not accept her back. They are free to lead the lives the way they want."

To this, his daughter responded, stating that she and Sandeep got married in 2008 in Simhachalam. A "Since I broke the news to my parents, they have literally kept me a prisoner in the house for five years. Recently, they have started pestering me to marry second time. I was afraid my father would use his political pressure to marry me off. I left on my own on Sunday. How can anybody be kidnapped from a MLA's house? As I heard that my husband was taken away forcibly by somebody, I approached the media.

Till then I did not want to speak anything against my parents. My father as an MLA sets right affairs in many families, then why can't he do the same in respect of his daughter. I am happy with Sandeep and request my father to leave us to our fate."

Interestingly, Sandeep, who had denied on April 23 that he was not kidnapped by anyone, retracted his statement the following day. "Some people forcibly took me away on Sunday. I was taken to Tadepalligudem police station where I was quizzed about my relationship with Ramya. The MLA knows who took me away. If I reveal it, he will feel bad. I love Ramya and can support her well. I will look after her in the same manner as her father did. We pray that we be left alone."