Kendrapara: A wedding ceremony snowballed into a chaotic affair after irate villagers detained the couple following a group clash with the groom’s family in Rajnagar block of Odisha’s Kendrapara district on Tuesday night. The incident was triggered after some members of the wedding procession allegedly misbehaved with the bride’s family and set their vehicle on fire in an inebriated state. On the other hand, the groom’s side claimed that the couple was not allowed to leave the village even after the rituals were completed.
As per reports, Harekrushna Roul’s son Manas of Jaduchandrapur village within Rajnagar police limits was getting married to Prafulla Padhiari’s daughter Pratima of Kaitha village in Rajanagar.
On Tuesday, the baraat or the ceremonial procession of the groom reached the bride’s place at night. While they were served dinner, some of them consumed alcohol and started misbehaving. They created a ruckus and even went on to set afire an auto of the girl’s uncle which further enraged the villagers resulting in a clash.
“The baraat came late in the night. The boy’s family were served dinner. They ate and some of them left only to come back drunk. They then created a scene and got into a fight with some of our people. I went and rescued some of them. Around five of them including one Sunil came back again and started abusing my elder brother. I tried to pacify them and even locked up our boys to prevent any further flare up. But at around 2.30 am, villagers claimed they saw the groom’s party borrowing a matchstick on the pretext of lighting a cigarette and then setting my auto on fire. I have filed a case against those five people and an FIR has been registered,” claimed the bride’s uncle.
“We did the formalities and served dinner to the groom’s side. Then we came back to sleep. After an hour or two, some of the baraatis came and knocked on our door. One of them claimed to be President of the Youth Congress. They started abusing Bhima Padhiari and threatened to thrash him. When I said he was in Pune, one of them started beating one of his brothers. One of the baraatis came and apologised but a while later, they set our auto on fire. If they could do this, they could very well throw a bomb at our house or make any similar attempt to harm us,” wept Subhashree Padhiari, another relative.
Meanwhile, the groom’s grandfather alleged that in the middle of rituals, villagers from the bride’s side barged in and hurled abuses claiming that the baraatis had caused damage including setting one of their autos on fire. They interrupted the rites and even detained the couple, he added.
Rajnagar police on getting information, reached the place and started investigation. A case has been registered.