German
NRI arrested after he got married a fifth time
Another NRI caught for 'holiday marriages'
Jalandhar, Sep. 14, 2008
IANS
The free run of a Germany-based non-resident Indian (NRI) indulging
in "holiday marriages" during his frequent trips to
India has been curtailed by the Punjab Police - but not before
he got married at least five times in as many years.
The NRI, Gurdev Singh, who is in his 50s and based in Hamburg,
Germany, is now cooling his heels in a police lockup after he
was finally arrested by the police on Friday immediately after
he got married a fifth time.
Singh's luck with converting all his holiday trips to India into
honeymoons ended when his fourth wife, Rajinder Kaur, tracked
down his past and came to know that he not only had three wives
other than her but was all set to get married a fifth time.
Incidentally, the wedding list of the NRI came to the knowledge
of the Punjab Police in Bholath town of Kapurthala district, 40
km from here, last week only when he was arrested in another case
of embezzling Rs 500,000 from Nazir Chand with the promise of
settling him abroad.
Singh was declared a proclaimed offender (PO) by the police in
that case which was registered in 2002.
"We raided his home in Bholath but did not find him there.
He was finally nabbed from Chintpurni (a temple town in neighbouring
Himachal Pradesh, 90 km from here) where he was getting married
again," Bholath station house officer (SHO) Gurwinder Singh
said.
So sure was the NRI about his repeated wedding plans that in
his fifth marriage to a woman called Rosy, he even took a Scorpio
sports utility vehicle (SUV) costing over Rs.700,000 as dowry
among other things.
His other wives included a German woman called Maria, Rajinder
Kaur of Jalandhar district, Promila, a woman from Palampur town
in Himachal's Kangra district, and another woman from Hoshiarpur
town, 40 km from here.
It was Rajinder Kaur, his fourth wife, who tracked his past and
future plans and informed the police. She claimed that Gurdev
lived with her for three weeks in 2004 before going back to Germany
and not getting in touch again.
None of the other "wedding" victims of the NRI complained
to the police despite being cheated by him.
This is not the first incident of NRIs indulging in 'holiday
marriages' in Punjab. The custom of NRIs coming to Punjab for
holidays and getting married is quite common.
The 'holiday marriage' plans of a Britain-based 60-year-old non-resident
Indian (NRI) went awry in April this year when the police arrested
him after his earlier wife complained that he had cheated her.
The cheated wife, Harjinder Kaur, 42, and activists of the Lok
Bhalai Party (LBP), a social and political organization in Punjab
that takes up cases of illegal immigration and fake marriages,
filed a complaint with the Punjab police after which the house
of NRI Malkiat Singh in Model Town here was raided.
Kaur, a divorcee, claimed that she got married to the NRI earlier
in 2008 with the hope of settling herself and her two children
aged 18 and 13 years.
The marriage was fixed at the behest of a local marriage bureau
here. Kaur claimed that the marriage bureau forced her to sell
her house worth Rs.1.5 million for just Rs.750,000 and took the
money from her for marrying her with the NRI.
She said that her NRI husband later refused to get the marriage
registered saying that he had done this only for his holiday trip
in India.
"When we confronted him about his earlier marriage, he said
that he was not married to Kaur at all and remained unrepentant,"
LBP general secretary Ramandeep Singh Bharowal said.
In Kapurthala district March this year, a Britain-based non-resident
Indian (NRI) groom's desire to get married a second time illegally
without seeking divorce from his first wife ended in tragedy for
him after he was not only beaten up at the venue of his wedding
ceremony but also arrested by the police.
NRI Rajwinder Singh's D-day to get married to Harpreet Kaur of
Ganganagar in Rajasthan turned sour soon after his wedding party
comprising nearly 200 people reached the marriage palace and was
confronted by activists of the LBP, who asked him for proof of
his first marriage having legally ended.
"His first wife Sarabjit Kaur had sent a message to us that
her husband was getting married illegally after telling her that
he had come to India for a holiday," LBP leader A S Mullanpuri
said.
When the groom failed to furnish any proof, the LBP activists
and others gave him a sound thrashing before handing him over
to the police. Most of his relatives ran away from the venue after
they were chased.
The police later booked him for cheating and arrested him.