Con banega dulhan? Two brides show the way in Kashi
VARANASI: It was a marriage in which greed wed gullibility. The result: two brides fled with thousands of rupees and gold, leaving their unsuspecting grooms behind, just a few hours after tying the knot in Varanasi.
The grooms from Haryana, who had never seen the brides before and didn’t even get to know their names, have filed a complaint with the police.
Anil Kumar, a resident of Haryana, told the police that he contacted one Mintu Gupta of Varanasi for his brother, Raju Kumar’s and friend, Sunil Kumar’s marriages.
He contacted Mintu after he came across online advertisements on a marriage bureau site about a month ago. Gupta sent him pictures of two young women and the marriage was scheduled for February 22.
Police said Anil, Raju and friend Sunil reached Varanasi on Wednesday.
Seven of their relatives also turned up to attend the wedding. Mintu Gupta, the supposed marriage bureau operator, made arrangements for their stay in a hotel at Rajghat.
Police said the wedding was solemnised at an ashram in the early hours of Thursday after which Anil’s brother presented gold jewellery to the girls.
Anil also paid Rs 60,000 to Gupta for his services before the vidai (send-off) on Thursday.
From the wedding venue, Gupta accompanied both the brides and grooms to the railway station.
Once they reached the platform at the station, Gupta requested Anil to let the brides bid farewell to their relatives waiting outside.
When Anil readily acquiesced, Gupta along with the brides left promising to return in 20 minutes.
However, brides did not turn up and the youths waited for hours. They looked in vain for their wives at the waiting room and other areas of the station. Disappointed with the futile search, the youths contacted the Government Railway Police at the Cantonment railway station.
Senior sub-inspector Adarsh Yadav said that the youths left for Haryana after lodging a verbal complaint.
They did not submit a written one despite being asked to do so. According to the police, the youths perhaps didn’t lodge a written complaint to avoid embarrassment.