Man conned of ₹2.5 lakh in marriage scam in Beed district; new bride turns out to be minor

Man conned of ₹2.5 lakh in marriage scam in Beed district; new bride turns out to be minor

Beed, Police in Maharashtra's Beed district have launched an investigation after a man claimed he was cheated of ₹2.5 lakh in a matrimonial fraud, discovering his newly-wedded wife was actually a minor.

Man conned of ₹2.5 lakh in marriage scam in Beed district; new bride turns out to be minor

The marriage crumbled within just two days when the bride revealed the entire alliance was a racket orchestrated to extort money and steal valuables, police said on Thursday.

Acting on a complaint filed by the aggrieved man, a resident of Georai town in the central Maharashtra district, police initiated a probe and discovered the bride was actually a minor whose identity documents had been forged.

The groom's family had contacted matchmakers based in Jafrabad town in Jalna district. On June 22, the young man's father shared his son's photograph and biodata via WhatsApp. The intermediaries subsequently shared a young woman's photograph and asked the family to meet in Jafrabad, police said.

On October 1, the man and his parents travelled to Jafrabad to meet the prospective bride. During the meeting, the middlemen demanded ₹2.5 lakh to finalize the match. Desperate to arrange the wedding, the groom's family agreed to the demand, they said.

On the evening of October 5, the bride's entourage arrived in Georai by car. As per the agreement, the groom's family transferred ₹25,000 each digitally to two designated mobile numbers and handed over the remaining ₹2 lakh in cash. A priest was summoned to solemnize the wedding rituals, following which the middlemen departed, leaving the bride behind, according to police.

"However, within 48 hours of the wedding, the bride began insisting on returning to her parental home. When the family assured her they would visit around Dussehra, she reportedly confessed the marriage was a sham orchestrated solely to siphon off cash and gold ornaments. When the groom contacted the intermediaries demanding an explanation, they dodged his calls and offered evasive replies," they said.

The matter escalated to police, and on October 19, the girl recorded her statement. Investigations revealed that while a forged Aadhaar card reflected her age as 20 years, she was, in fact, a minor.

In her statement, the girl claimed she had been brought to Georai without prior intimation and forcibly married off, alleging she had been duped as well, police said.

Police promptly produced her before the Child Welfare Committee .

Kishor Pawar, Inspector at the Georai Police Station, said, "We have received the complaint. Since the bride is a minor, appropriate legal procedure was followed and she has been shifted to a juvenile shelter home. A thorough probe into the racket was on."

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