3/19/2003 5:29:24 PM

APPEAL TO PUNJAB
MR Ramoowalia has urged the Punjab Government to enforce the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the state as the existing laws are not enough to deal with such cases. Such marriages were organised crime in which the parents of the bridegroom, middleman and relatives collectively play fraud on the girl concerned by not revealing any detail on the first marriage.

Chandigarh, March 12
When Gurdev Singh (name changed) took a flight for India from England recently, he cherished a desire to have a new bride. On arrival at his village near Jalandhar, he got engaged to a 20-year-old girl, who was 27 years younger to him, without revealing anything about his family. The date of marriage was fixed. A banquet hall was booked in Kapurthala. Everything went smoothly till the marriage party reached the banquet hall.
All of a sudden, a police party accompanied by activists of the Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) from Kapurthala district reached the hall. Before the beginning of “milani”, the bridegroom and his other relatives were asked to come to a police station. Stunned by the development, the parents of the girl sought to know the reason.
The police took no time in exposing the past of the bridegroom. They told the girl’s parents that the bridegroom was a fraud as he was already married and had three children, the eldest being 20-year-old, The girl’s parents profusely thanked the LBP for saving their daughter. And the bridegroom had to cool his heels in the police station for the whole day.
There are several such cases exposed by Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, President of the LBP, which has taken this task as a mission in the state. “We have got arrested at least four NRI bridegrooms, who were trying either to get married again after abandoning their earlier wives”, said Mr Ramoowalia in an interview. The marriage plans of such bridegrooms were shattered by LBP activists at Nakodar, Mehatpur, Desian and Khusropur.
Mr Ramoowalia says his party has exposed several such cases of fraud with girls by NRI bridegrooms. My party was alone doing work on this front whereas it was the responsibility of leaders like Mr Parkash Singh Badal, who headed the state thrice as Chief Minister, to enact law to stop such marriages and protect the girls concerned”, he added.
“All this was being done out of sheer greed by NRI bridegrooms. They take dowry worth Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. They stay with new brides for a few months and then go back to their adopted countries never to return”, says Mr Ramoowalia. “Since July, 2002, I have got a compensation varying between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 12 lakh each for 42 girls who met such a fate at the hands of NRI bridegrooms”, he adds.
As many as 168 FIRs have been got registered against such bridegrooms. He was hopeful that in another 35 such cases, the girls concerned would be given adequate compensation. “In eight cases, the main accused (bridegrooms) have been stopped from absconding by taking flights” he further revealed.
For helping such girls to wage a legal battle against “thug bridegrooms”, panels of advocates, who provide legal service without charging any penny, have been set up in almost all districts. Three advocates — Mr Sanjiv Pandey, Ms Daljit Kaur and Mr Paramjit Singh Brar — take up such cases free of cost in the Punjab and Haryana High Court at the request of the LBP, he says.
“Following a meeting with Mrs Sonia Gandhi, she has written to the Punjab Government to extend full police help. And the ADGP (Crime) has written a letter to all officers in the field in this connection”, he said.
NRI bridegrooms used several ways to cheat girls. They got ex-parte divorces in their adopted countries by preparing fake documents and kept their wives, back in Punjab, in dark. “In certain cases, they take their brides along abroad and bring them back within a year and then never take them back”, the LBP leader said.
T.N.Service