Monday, June 7, 2010

'Veiled' shock: Bride turns out to be a boy

If marriages are made in heaven, Gangaram Tewari must be wondering whether his was designed in hell. This 30-plus small-time electrician from Gauri Shankerpurwa hamlet in Bahraich in the province of Uttar Pradesh, was ‘fraudulently’ married to someone other than his fiancee. Worse: this “someone” turned out to be a teenaged boy in disguise of a bride.

Tewari now has lodged an police complaint against the match-making couple who brought the two sides together for tying the nuptial knot and charged Rs 30,000 for it. Police have arrested the “bride” boy who admitted to have been married away similarly at least 18 times in the past. A manhunt is on for the other members of the gang.

Tewari’s hopes to get his Rs 30,000 back now rest with god. Ram Bharose, the superintendent of police, Bahraich, says that police teams were now on the lookout for the gang. “This is one of its kind case that I have come across in my entire service till date,” says the SP, talking to Times Of India.

It all started in March last when, fed up with the loneliness in his life, Gangaram Tewari finally decided to get a life-partner. Looking for a bride, his family bumped into a match-maker couple — Dheeraj Tewari and his wife of Ramgaon locality in the city — who assured them a compatible match for Rs 30,000 as their fee. The couple offered a number of proposals for Tewari. Finally, the family shortlisted one — Sunita, daughter of late Sukhai Yadav, hailing from a tiny hamlet of Barabanki district near uttar Pradesh's capital city, Lucknow.