Timely intervention of a media personnel and police prevented a bride from marrying an HIV positive man at Devadanapatti village in Theni district on Sunday night.
Police said that a journalist in Theni received information that Manivannan (name changed), the bridegroom, was supposed to marry his close relative Rani (name changed). The informer said that Manivannan was an HIV positive patient and had not informed about his ailment to the bride’s family. Around 11 pm, the journalist alerted senior police officers in the district about the wedding plan of the HIV patient.
Acting on the tip-off, Superintendent of Police Praveenkumar Abhinapu directed Theni DSP Ayyanar and Devanthanpatti Inspector K Muthukumar to immediately to take necessary action on the issue.
Inspector Muthukumar said, “I immediately called the bride’s father and brother to the police station and informed them about the man’s health condition. However, they refused to believe it saying such canards were spread by enemies of the groom in a bid to tarnish his image.”
Muthukumar said that they counselled the bride’s family for over an hour, following which they decided to conduct an HIV test on Manivannan.
“We took Manivannan to a private medical lab in Devadanapatti. We brought in the lab owner from Periyakulam and conducted the test at 2 am. The test proved that Manivannan was HIV positive. Though Manivannan’s family was aware of the fact that he was undergoing treatment for his condition in Kerala, they had hidden this fact from Rani’s family,” Muthukumar said.
The police let Manivannan go with a warning as Rani’s family abstained from lodging a complaint.