Groom tricked, gets old for new

HoneY

MaaPeya Da LaaDLa
SIRSA: Sukhdev Singh received the shock of his life when he found that the bride at his wedding was not the girl the go-betweens had introduced him to a few days back.

Not able to find a bride, Sukhdev had in the burgeoning "bride market" of Haryana purchased one for Rs 35,000 and was jubilant when he caught a glimpse of his would-be wife on May 26.

That is what the brokers, that group of notorious "traders" who bring in girls from the North-East to be sold to desperate Haryanvi men unable to marry because of rampant female foeticide, had promised Sukhdev.

It was not to be, though. Even as the 25-year-old groom happily readied himself for the final marriage vows on Wednesday evening, the woman underneath the pallu turned out to be a 30-year-old he hadn't bargained for, literally. "That is cheating," he told those who had organized his bride. "I was shown something else and am being given something else."

There was more bad news in store for him. Rani, the woman sitting next to him and ready to tie the knot, already was a mother of two.

As an aghast Sukhdev ran out of the mandap and went crying to the police, Rani was quickly arrested along with the three brokers, Guddi, Charno and Kartaro.

All have now been booked under sections 420, 406 and 120-B of the IPC and, after being produced in a court at Mandi Dabwali on Thursday, remanded to a day in police custody.

Sukhdev, a resident of Khairkan village, Sirsa, was approached by Kartaro and Charno on May 19 and told that he would have to pay Rs 35,000 if he didn't want to die a bachelor.

After taking an advance of Rs 15,000, he was then directed to come to Mandi Dabwali with the balance amount and see the girl on May 26. He was shown a young woman he found "pretty".

Incidentally, just a couple of days back, an Assamese girl escaped from the clutches of her 40-year-old husband in Hisar to tell the police of a widening bride market in parts of Haryana. She had been bought for Rs 55,000 and seven other girls, who had accompanied her from a village in Assam, had been bought as prospective wives for amounts ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000.
 
Top