The Uttar Pradesh police has nabbed a gang of robbers who used girls as brides, and the brides in turn used to rob the unsuspecting groom's family and decamp with the family jewels.
The characters:
Sonu : used to scout for unmarried boys willing to marry
Ravinder : used to go to the family posing as the bride's relative
Santosh : used to marry posing as a bride and then carry out the act
Poonam : used to work as a bride like Santosh
Two more women worked in this gang and they are absconding.
Modus operandi:
Police said, Poonam, Santosh alias Divya used to keep sleeping tablets with them. For seven to eight days after the wedding, they used to stay as newly-wed brides and find out places in the house where the jewels and cash were kept. On the evening of the ‘act', the bride serves dinner laced with sleeping medicine, and then clears off with the cash and jewellery.
In Dubhar Kishenpur village, Santosh mixed eight to ten sleeping tablets in the Aaloo-Tamatar dish and served to nine members of her in-laws family. By ten, every body was snoring, and by 11 pm, she cleared all the cash and jewels from the house. She then fled in a car with Ravinder, police said.
Saharanpur police nabbed two of these ‘brides' on Monday night, one from Garhi Pukhta near Shamli, and the other from Teetaro near Saharanpur. Two more ‘brides' are absconding.
This gang has robbed more than 12 families in Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat. They never used to leave around any clue, police said.
Santosh alias Divya has ‘married' five times, and in all five instances, she robbed her in-laws, police said. Poonam alias Reena arrested from Garhi Pukhta has married seven times, police said.
The mastermind of the gang Ravinder is, in fact, Santosh's husband, but used to perform the role of brother in all these fake weddings. Similarly, Poonam's husband Joginder used to perform his wife's fake marriages.
Says DIG L. V. Antony Devkumar: “ We have arrested the gang leader Ravinder and have seized Rs 30,000 cash, an artificial necklace and 100 gm charas from him.”
In the Dubhar Kishenpur case, Santosh was ‘sold' for Rs 30,000 to the groom's family, police said.
Santosh alias Divya is a resident of Jhinjhana and belongs to the Bavaria caste. She had her first ‘love' marriage with one Sonu, and after coming in contact with Ravinder, became a ‘robber bride'. She presently stays with Ravinder in Rampuri colony of Muzaffarnagar. She has four children from her first husband, police said.
Poonam alias Reena hails from Himachal Pradesh. She was first married to Joginder of Shamli. It was Joginder who made her a ‘robber bride'. On May 22 night, she decamped with Rs 10,000 cash and gold jewellery from Dullahedi village.
Poonam has married seven times : (1) with Sohrab in Abdullah Kheri (2) in Ummedgarh with Ramphal Singh (3) In Chichrouli with Om Pal (4) In Ramgarh (Baghpat) with Sunil Kumar (5) In Ahmedgarh with Sonu (love marriage) (6) In Sujiankheri with Ravinder (7) In Dubhar Kishenpur with Kalyan.
