It was a vivid and sunny Saturday morning. As many as 28 {couples}, and their households, had gathered at a venue in Rajkot. The event was a mass wedding ceremony ceremony for which every of the 56 individuals had paid Rs 15,000 upfront to the organisers. Besides, the organisers had been nowhere to be seen on the premises. After ready for a couple of hours, the {couples} had been hit by a realisation: They’d been fleeced.
Heartbroken, numerous {couples}, seen crying inconsolably as their households comforted them, left the venue. Most of them had been native residents or from neighbouring districts of Morbi and Junagarh; a couple of had come down from far-off locations resembling Chhota Udepur. Greater than 500 individuals, together with relations and buddies of the {couples}, had gathered on the venue in Railnagar space of Rajkot.
When the organisers remained untraceable even because the pandal was arrange, round 9.30am, the dad and mom of one of many brides determined to name the police. The officers knowledgeable Sajjansinh Parmar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) for Zone-1 in Rajkot, who arrived on the spot.
With the assistance of native residents and NGOs, the police solemnised the marriage of six of the {couples}. By the night, a police staff had additionally nabbed three of the organisers.
Police stated the organisers had taken Rs 30,000 from every couple on the pretext of holding a “Sarva Gnati Samuh Lagna” (mass wedding ceremony).
When DCP Parmar reached the positioning, virtually all of the attendees had left the venue besides for 3 {couples} and their households. However after they learnt that the police had stepped in, three different {couples} returned to the venue.
On what drove his resolution, DCP Parmar instructed The Indian Specific, “It’s the accountability of the police to assist the individuals when there’s a drawback. Thus, we determined to get the weddings of the {couples} solemnised beneath the aegis of the police.”
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In the meantime, on the directions of the DCP, an FIR was filed at Pradyuman Nagar police station in opposition to six of the organisers, together with essential accused Chandresh Chhatrola. The others had been Deepak Hirani, Dilip Gohil, Manish Vitthalpara, Dilip Varsanda and Hardik Shishangiya. They had been booked for dishonest, fraud, and legal conspiracy.
Hirani, Gohel, and Vitthalpara had been later arrested.
ACP Radhika Bharai instructed The Indian Specific: “These individuals had taken Rs 15,000 per particular person. They’d additionally taken varied quantities of cash, resembling Rs 15 lakh from one donor and Rs 6 lakh from one other, from individuals. They’d additionally acquired jewelry and gold from the donors. The complete quantity of the cash collected by Chhatrola is beneath investigation. He’s absconding and we have now deployed groups to apprehend and arrest him. He had organised a number of such group weddings prior to now and in 2023, an identical state of affairs had arisen. We’re additionally inquiring into that incident.”
She additional stated, “A number of women and men hoping to get married on the ceremony instructed us that their dad and mom needed to take loans to buy their wedding ceremony attire and jewelry. Additionally, most of the potential brides and grooms had been orphans and their weddings had been being funded by relations, which made them really feel worse when such a state of affairs arose on their huge day.”
