Gang of 'looteri dulhans' strikes in Aligarh, grooms wake up finding homes robbed

Aligarh (UP), Oct 13 (PTI) Just a night after their "hasty" weddings, several men in Aligarh "regained consciousness" only to find themselves robbed and their new brides missing.

Over a dozen men in Aligarh were allegedly duped by a marriage racket that arranged weddings with “looteri dulhans” (runaway brides), who vanished with jewellery and cash after spending just one night with their grooms, officials and local representatives here said on Monday.

According to former Aligarh Mayor Shakuntla Bharti, several men approached her claiming that they had been deceived by a gang posing as a matrimonial service.

The group, allegedly led by a local man identified as Mukesh Gupta, is believed to have charged about Rs 1.25 lakh per match, she said.

"The grooms were contacted through social media and phone calls and were offered attractive brides at reasonable costs. The weddings were held hastily, sometimes in temples, homes or small halls, often around Karwa Chauth," Bharti said, adding that many victims were from rural parts of the district.

The brides, most of them allegedly from Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh, would wait until the early morning hours before escaping with valuables, the former mayor said.

In many cases, the grooms transferred around Rs 60,000 in advance through online payments before the weddings took place, Bharti added.

One such case surfaced at Aligarh's Sasani Gate police station, where 30-year-old Prateek Sharma, a resident of Gangadham Colony, alleged that his newlywed wife drugged his family on the night of Karwa Chauth and fled with gold jewellery and Rs 4.01 lakh in cash.

Sharma said he married a woman named Shobha, daughter of Maheshwari Prasad Chaurasia from Bihar's Rohtas district, on October 9 in a simple home ceremony arranged by Mukesh Gupta, his wife and an aide named Sachin.

He alleged that the trio had collected Rs 1.20 lakh from him for organising the wedding.

"When my family regained consciousness the next morning, we realised she had escaped with all the valuables. Later, we found that the mobile phone she left behind was receiving calls from several numbers linked to the same gang," Sharma said in his FIR.

Police said a case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and an investigation has been launched to trace the accused.

Former mayor Bharti, meanwhile, claimed that many victims are hesitant to approach the police due to embarrassment, and she has urged authorities to take suo motu cognisance of the racket. PTI COR KIS NB