INDIAN ROMANCE - THE STORY OF EZAZ AND ILLIYAS DAUGHTER

A bridegroom and his family were beaten up for raising their dowry demand from the bride’s father a day after the wedding day. As soon as they came to know about the unreasonable demand, residents of Badarpur village, about 20 km away from Nuh in Haryana, on Saturday night forced the groom to divorce his wife even before the ‘bidaai’ as he did not ‘‘deserve her’’.




Sources said Ezaz Khan of Akera village, who studies in Jamia Milia Islamia in Delhi, reached Badarpur on Saturday to marry the daughter of Illiyas, a landlord. Everything was fine and nikaah was performed with all pomp and show. However, when the time came for ‘bidaai’ and Illiyas went to hand over the key of Maruti Alto to the bridegroom, he refused to take it. Ezaz said he would not accept anything less than a Scorpio and Rs 15 lakh in cash. The bridegroom and his father were not only beaten black and blue by the villagers, but they also took 25 baraatis hostage and tonsured heads of Ezaz and his father. Later in the night, a village panchayat was called and it pronounced the decision that the family of Ezaz would have to pay Rs 8 lakh — the money spent by the girl’s family since engagement — if they wanted to get released. Left with no option, Khurshid
Khan, Ezaz’s father agreed to pay the money. They were released on Sunday. Meanwhile, the police chose to keep away from the spot. A senior police officer defended the move saying that in cases like this, panchayat takes its own decision. Illiyas, while upset over the way things went, said he was also happy that his girl was saved from going into a greedy family. He said: ‘‘We agreed to the marriage only because the boy is studying in a reputed institute in Delhi. But I will rather marry my daughter off to someone illiterate.’’ The region, predominated by Meo-Muslims, has a high rate of illiteracy and poverty. Residents said some families in the area had started using dowry as a means to get money. They said that these families sent their boys to study in Delhi and then sought lakhs in dowry. ‘‘Landlords are willing to shell out big sums for an educated son-in-law, but this is a bad trend,’’ said Mehtab Alam, a villager.