BHOPAL: A promise of a mass marriage ceremony allegedly turned into a scam in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district, leaving 42 unmarried men from several districts duped after the women they were promised did not arrive for the event, police said. Two accused have been arrested, while two others are on the run.
As many as 42 unmarried men from different districts of central and western Madhya Pradesh have been duped in the name of getting married to young women purportedly from an Indore orphanage.
Aspiring a blissful married life, the 42 men, mostly from Vidisha, Shajapur, Bhopal and Dewas districts, converged at the Club Ground in Dewas city’s Radhaganj area on Sunday, where they were told they would meet women from an orphanage in neighbouring Indore.
However, despite waiting through the entire day, none of the brides arrived, shattering their hopes of getting married the next day at the hilltop Mata Chamunda Tekri Temple in Dewas city. The men later realised they had allegedly been cheated out of their savings by a racket.
“Each one of us who have come here from different districts paid sums ranging between Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 to a couple, who sent us pictures of beautiful girls, telling they were girls from an orphanage in Indore, with whom we would be married here at the Mata Chamunda Tekri temple in Dewas on May 25. We came here, but none of the girls have come here throughout the day,” said Bhopal resident Om Prakash Prajapati, who paid Rs 15,000 to the couple Mukesh and Sunita Bairagi.
The 42 cheated men also included Shajapur district-native Prakash Meena, who had paid Rs 16,000 for getting married to a young woman from Indore’s orphanage.
“Most of those men who have been duped include those who are unmarried since the last some years, particularly owing to their weak economic position. Pictures of girls were shared on our cell-phones by those who promised the marriage. Now we’ve come to know that the pictures sent to us were not of girls from an Indore orphanage, instead they were budding young models, whose pictures were downloaded from internet and sent to us, mentioning that they were orphan girls, who will be married to us at a mass marriage ceremony at the hilltop temple on May 25.”
Realising that they had allegedly been duped and had lost savings totalling over Rs 10 lakh, the 42 men caught hold of the couple Mukesh Bairagi and Sunita Bairagi, who had promised the marriages and collected Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 from each of them.
While the men blamed the couple for cheating them, Mukesh Bairagi, a resident of Vidisha district, alleged that his elder brother Dinesh Das Bairagi had orchestrated the entire fraud.
“My brother Dinesh Das Bairagi works at a factory in Indore, he told me that arrangements were to be made for the mass marriage ceremony of a girls' from an Indore orphanage. Dinesh Bhaiya provided me with the contact numbers of various families, whose unmarried sons would be married to those girls at mass marriage ceremony at the hilltop temple on May 25. While all the grooms arrived here on Sunday, neither Bhaiya nor any of the 42 brides arrived here. My brother’s phone is sounding switched off, we’ve been cheated by him,” said Mukesh, flanked by wife Sunita.
Not just Mukesh and his wife Sunita, but Mukesh’s father-in-law Narsingh Das Bairagi is also allegedly an important part of the fraud, which could run into more than Rs 10 lakh. Narsingh allegedly acted as the intermediary who connected Mukesh, Dinesh and Sunita with the unmarried men across various districts.
According to Dewas district’s additional SP Jaiveer Bhadoria, a case of cheating has been registered on the complaint of one of the victims Abhishek under Section 318(4) BNS. Two accused, Mukesh and his wife, have been arrested, while efforts are underway to arrest the two other accused.
“We are gathering details about their modus operandi. Any additional complaints received at the police station in this matter will also be incorporated into the investigation. Since the accused are from Vidisha district, a team has also been sent there to collect further information,” Bhadoria said.
