Patna, June 6: A day after being arrested, a 22-year-old woman, who is the wife of Patna-based businessman Nikhil Kumar, today confessed before judicial magistrate Anju Singh at Patna civil court that she had gone to Punjab on her own and she was under no one’s influence.

The woman had left her husband’s house on April 16 after she allegedly fell in love with one Shailendra Sharma on a social networking website.

The woman told the court that Shailendra was innocent, adding she wanted to live with her parents now.

She gave her statement under Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code (confession and statement before magistrate).

Shailendra, an engineer, works in a company based in Australia and is a resident of Punjab.

The woman, who is also the mother of a five-month-old son, had taken Rs 50 lakh and jewellery worth Rs 20 lakh along with her, the police said. She had taken the baby along, the police added.

The husband of the woman has lodged an FIR against Shailendra and his family members, including his mother Parveen, cousin Divya, elder brother Aman Sharma and uncle Birendra alias Pappu Sharma at the local Kotwali police station.

A joint team of the Kotwali and the Patrakar Nagar police stations has been formed and the investigations have started.

Pappu was arrested from Punjab while Shailendra and the woman were arrested from Hyderabad airport on Saturday when they were all set to catch a flight to Australia. Both are in Beur jail at the moment.

The police said they had traced their whereabouts through their mobile phone tower location.

Sources said that after fleeing Patna, both of them were moving to different places, including Punjab, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. Shailendra had arrived in Patna on April 16 and had taken the woman along with him, the police said.

The police had earlier said that in most of the cases, the woman, rather than pointing at her lover, says she went away on her own will and that no one was responsible.

“In this case, too, the same happened. With a serious social stigma attached to these incidents, the women generally succumb to the pressure of their family members and refuse that they had eloped with someone, stating that they went on their own will,” a police officer said.

“The problem arises when crimes like murder happen as a result of the same. It is important for couples to go for counselling sessions if there are problems in their marital relationship,” the officer added.