Four matchmakers arrested for deceiving client

‘Woman I met was replaced with someone else at the wedding’.

MULTAN:

Vehari police have arrested four people associated with a match making business for allegedly cheating a client.

The suspects, including the owner of the business, are accused of replacing the woman complainant Abdul Rasheed, resident of  Chak 72/15-L in Sahiwal,  says he had met and approved for marriage with another woman, Nasreen Bibi, at a wedding ceremony on Wednesday.

Nasreen Bibi has also accused the bureau of deceit. She says she was told that Rasheed had agreed to marrying her. She said she had paid Rs50,000 to the suspects.

Police have registered an FIR under Sections 419 (punishment for cheating) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) against the suspects, including Abdur Rauf, Muhammad Fayaz and Muhammad akram. They said they were now trying to track down the woman Rasheed had originally selected for marriage.

The FIR stated that the complainant’s sisters had found out about the fraud minutes before a cleric was to get bride’s signatures on the marriage documents on Wednesday. The complainant had already signed the papers. It said he had earlier met and approved for marriage a woman who identified herself as Mina, 22. Rasheed said he had paid Rs10,000 to the suspects to arrange a bride for him. He said another Rs25,000 was to be paid after the marriage. The complainant said some of his relatives living in Vehari had recommended the bureau to him on learning that he was looking for a second wife after his first wife died a few months ago.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2012.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled 'bride' as 'bribe'.