Ex-husband of Kerala bride missing in Dubai arrested after 10 years

Almost a decade after the mysterious disappearance of Smitha, a newly-wed Indian woman from an apartment in Karama, Dubai, Indian police have reopened the investigation and arrested her husband.

The husband, Sabu Antony of Thoppumady used to work in Dubai and was recently arrested in Kerala on the basis of a complaint lodged by the missing girl’s father, George, who has been pursuing the case for a decade.

The couple lived together for just 17 days, of which 15 days were in India and two in Dubai. Then the woman went missing without a trace.
 

Sabu Antony of Thoppumady used to work in Dubai and was recently arrested in Kerala on the basis of a complaint lodged by Smitha’s father. (Supplied)

The husband, Sabu, later migrated to the USA and got married again.

In May 2005, Sabu Antony used to live in the Al Quoz industrial area and married Smitha, an IT engineer.

After landing in Dubai on September 1, 2005, the girl called her parents up to inform them that she reached safely.

Within two days the girl went missing.

“Her husband claimed that she had eloped with a doctor in Abu Dhabi after leaving behind a letter. There was  no trace of the woman and the husband had filed a missing case in the Al Rafaa Police Station.

“The case was almost closed after ten years, during which time, he has managed to migrate to the USA and get married again, leading a happy life there,” Advocate Shamsudeen Karunagappally, who is handling the case in Dubai now, tells Emirates 24|7.

Even though Sabu Antony was arrested and questioned on the basis of Smitha’s parent’s complaints, he was let off for lack of concrete evidence.

In 2012, he had filed a divorce case in the Moovattupuzha court, claiming that his wife had eloped.

The case was in the lime light again after the girl’s parents approached the then Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy with their grievance and even got Interpol involved in the investigation.

Advocate Shamsudeen Karunagappally claims that forensic tests have proved that the alleged letter written by the missing woman, was in fact written by Sabu Antony.

“We have approached the Al Rafaa police station with the case. It has been moved to the Dubai Police headquarters and an investigation will reveal more details,” he adds.

The Crime Branch asked him to come back from the USA and arrested him. “We have gathered all the relevant information from the Kerala Police and handed over the same to Dubai Police,” the Dubai lawyer says.

The case is in the Kerala High Court, which has directed the Indian Consulate in Dubai to advertise Smitha’s disappearance in newspapers and on TV channels; there has been no response.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.