It was a bright, sunny morning. As many as 28 couples, and their families, had gathered in Rajkot. The occasion was a mass marriage ceremony for which each of the 56 persons had paid Rs 15,000 in advance to the organisers. Except, the organisers were nowhere to be seen at the venue. After waiting for a few hours, the couples were hit by a realisation: They had been fleeced.
Heartbroken, many of the couples left the venue with their families. Most of them were local residents; a few had come down from other districts as far as Chhota Udepur, others were from Rajkot itself, from rural parts of the district like Gondal, while others were from Junagadh, Morbi and other nearby districts. More than 500 people had gathered at the venue in Railnagar area of Rajkot.
Around 9.30am, the parents of one of the brides decided to call the police. The officials informed Sajjansinh Parmar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) for Zone-1 in Rajkot, who arrived at the spot.
With the help of local residents and NGOs, the police solemnised the wedding of six of the couples. By the evening, a police team had also nabbed three of the organisers.
Police said the organisers had taken Rs 30,000 from each couple on the pretext of holding a “Sarva Gnati Samuh Lagna” (mass wedding).
When DCP Parmar reached the site, almost all the attendees had left the venue except for three couples and their families. But when they learnt that the police had stepped in, three other couples returned to the venue.
On what drove his decision, DCP Parmar told The Indian Express, “It is the responsibility of the police to help the people when there is a problem. Thus, we decided to get the weddings of the couples solemnised under the aegis of the police.”
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Meanwhile, the DCP also ordered an FIR against the organisers of the mass wedding who had disappeared before the event.
An FIR was filed at Pradyuman Nagar police station against six people, including main accused Chandresh Chhatrola, Deepak Hirani, Dilip Gohil, Manish Vitthalpara, Dilip Varsanda and Hardik Shishangiya for cheating and fraud criminal conspiracy.
Hirani, Gohel, and Vitthalpara were later arrested.
ACP Radhika Bharai told The Indian Express: “These people had taken Rs 15,000 per person and had also taken various amounts of money such as Rs 15 lakh from one donor and Rs 6 lakh from another. They had also received jewellery and gold from the donors. The full scope of the money collected by Chhatrola is under investigation. He is absconding and we have deployed teams to apprehend and arrest him. He had organised several such group weddings in the past and in 2023, a similar situation had arisen. We are also inquiring into that incident.”
She further said, “Several men and women hoping to get married at the ceremony told us that their parents had to take loans to purchase their wedding dresses and jewellery. Also, many of the potential brides and grooms were orphans and their weddings were being funded by relatives, which made them feel worse when such a situation had developed on their big day.”
