BAREILLY: A drunk groom‘s misstep at his own wedding in UP – in which he mistakenly garlanded his bride’s best friend – set off a series of mishaps, ending with his arrest and the bride calling off the marriage.
It started as Indian weddings often do – with a delay. The groom, Ravindra Kumar, 26, was late, and when he arrived, he didn’t seem to be in a hurry, lingering with his friends, catching up over drinks.
Medical examination confirms groom was drunk; booked under Dowry Act
The 500-odd guests at a house in Naughwa Bhagwantpur village in Bareilly stayed in their seats as the bride waited. The garland-exchanging ceremony – one of those formalities that takes only a moment – was about to begin. Then, Kumar turned to the wrong woman. It was just a second. A miscalculation. But in that brief pause, before anyone could intervene, he placed the ceremonial garland over the bride’s best friend.
As confusion rippled through the crowd, he took the garland off and placed it around the neck of a male friend beside her. Then, to perhaps maintain a certain symmetry, he garlanded an elderly guest as well. There are moments when silence is more telling than noise. The wedding guests did not react immediately. They watched. The bride, Radha Devi, 21, did not. She slapped him and walked away. It had taken months of preparation.
Omkar Verma, the bride’s brother, said the family had spent over Rs 10 lakh on the wedding. He had his own theory for why things had gone wrong. “They were unhappy with the dowry gifts. Maybe this was their way of humiliating us,” he told TOI. “And then we find out that he isn’t even a farmer as his family told us-he’s a truck driver.”
At 4am, a complaint was filed at Kularia police station. By morning, the wedding was off, and Kumar was in police custody. By noon, he had apologised. His family suggested the wedding should go on. Radha refused.
Circle officer Harsh Modi-used to break-ins and thefts but less accustomed to cases of misdirected garlanding-kept his summary brief. “The groom was intoxicated. He misbehaved. His medical examination confirmed he was drunk. He was booked under sections of the Dowry Act.”