A wedding in Punjab's Dhandi Khurd village ended in chaos after the groom's first wife arrived with police, forcing the husband to scale a wall and flee the venue mid-ritual.
The groom, Jaswinder Singh of Maujeywala, vanished from the site, but the intervention left the new bride stranded after completing several wedding rites and sparked a criminal investigation into bigamy and fraud.
First Wife's Allegations
The first wife told police she had married the man in a 2017 civil ceremony at the Punjab and Haryana high court. The couple has a young daughter. She alleged that despite a nine-year relationship, Jaswinder Singh had hidden her from his family and never brought her to his ancestral home. 'I came to know about the various legal cases against him only after we were married,' she told reporters, adding that the man was also into drugs.
Families Devastated
The disruption has left the second bride's family facing financial and social ruin. The bride's father claimed the matchmaker had failed to disclose Jaswinder Singh's marital status or criminal background. 'I spent lakhs of rupees on this wedding only to have this deception ruin my daughter's life,' the father said. He has made a police request to prosecute everyone involved in this matchmaking.
Police Investigation
Inspector Harbhajan Singh confirmed that police were recording statements from both families to initiate legal proceedings. 'A case has been registered, and a search for the accused groom is on,' he said. While the second bride has returned to her father's home, police are investigating whether the matchmaker and the groom's family were complicit in the attempted bigamy, a criminal offence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
