Bengaluru: Greedy groom insists on Rs 10 lakh dowry; loses Rs 6 lakh instead

A greedy bridegroom, apparently dreaming of making a quick Rs 10 lakh in dowry -that too by asking to marry not his bride, but her sister -instead found himself on the verge of being poorer by Rs 6 lakh.
Instead of his pockets filling up with the money he dreamt of, he found himself in that spot with the cops asking him to pay Rs 6 lakh to the bride's family as compensation for the expenses they bore for a wedding that got called off because of the greedy groom's stupid behaviour.Not just that, he is now forced to return all the gifts he had received since their engagement two months ago and at the wedding, to the bride's family.
Pradeep Kumar, the greedy groom from Hosadoddi of Kunigal taluk and an employee of a multinational automobile company in Ramanagara, was getting married to Chaithra, a MCA degree holder from Kumaraswamy Layout of Ramanagara.
The drama started unfolding when Chaithra, having gone without food for over three hours even as she wore high-heeled footwear which she was not used to, fainted.Pradeep is alleged to have immediately called off the wedding saying he did not want to marry a woman who had `fainting disease'.
The guests present at the wedding were shocked at the strange reason given by Pradeep to call off the wedding.
Pradeep left the hall in a huff. Attempts of some of the guests to reason with him to marry Chaithra and try to convince him that there was nothing medically wrong with her, proved futile.
It has been alleged that, at that point, Pradeep returned to make a strange demand of marrying, not Chaithra, but her younger sister, that too only if her family paid him Rs 10 lakh (dowry), and gifted him a residential site and 200 grams of gold. Such a demand enraged Chaithra's family members, who not only called off the wedding, but placed a counter-demand of Rs 6 lakh as compensation for the expenses they had borne for the wedding.
As tension mounted at the convention hall, the Ramanagara police rushed there and took statements.
On learning about what had happened, the police and the guests asked Pradeep to pay Chaithra's family Rs 6 lakh as compensation and return all the gifts.
The cornered groom had to pay Rs 1 lakh to Chaithra's family on the spot while promising to pay the balance Rs 5 lakh later.
Lakshman Gowda, Ramanagara town police subinspector, told Bangalore Mirror, “We visited the place and convinced the family members of both sides. We wanted to register a suo moto case against the groom, but the family members of the bride requested us that they would solve the dispute themselves. Finally, the guests convinced the groom to hand over Rs 6 lakh as compensation. But no complaint has been registered.“
By Manoj Sharma