A couple who eloped last month were detained in a Muzaffarpur village on Monday evening after the girl's family in Manipur lodged a missing case.

The girl, 23-year-old Thamling, is the daughter of a retired senior army official and a close relative of Manipur chief minister Nongthombam Biren Singh. She eloped with Mohammad Shah Rukh Khan, a resident of Chainpur village in Muzaffarpur, around 80km north of Patna, who studies in Chandigarh last month.

On a tip-off, a team headed by IPS probationer Kontesh Mishra raided the house of Mohammad Mumtaz, Khan's father, in the village under Sahebganj police station in Muzaffarpur district and found the girl.

Mishra, who is sub-divisional police officer of Saraiya, told The Telegraph that the youngsters had married in a local court.

On June 27, Mishra received a call from Chandel superintendent of police in Manipur, Kamei Angam Romanus, who provided information about the couple. "Since then we were keeping a close surveillance on Mumtaz's house," Mishra said. "On Monday, we got a lead and raided Mumtaz's house and found the couple. We have detained them at the local police station and they will be handed over to Manipur police as soon as they reach here."

A team from Chandel is likely to reach Muzaffarpur on Tuesday night.

During interrogation, Thamling told the police she met Khan - a fourth-semester student of United College of Engineering under Chaudhari Charan Singh University, Chandigarh, in Dimapur, Nagaland, during a sports tournament two years ago. After that they were in contact on Facebook.

She reached Muzaffarpur on June 24 and got married in the local court, the police quoted her as saying. On June 27, the couple went to Sikandarabad and had returned to Chainpur on Monday. "We have been living together as husband and wife. We are adults and the police have no right to interfere into our personal life," Thamlingtold the interrogators.