A marriage in India is not just about a social contract; it is a sacred bond and a spiritual promise to each other. Indian weddings are steeped in rich traditions packed with sentimental meaning.
But what if on the wedding day, the groom shows up but the bride doesn’t?
A similar case happened in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas. Dewas is primarily famous for the Bank Note Press, where Indian currency notes are printed, and as the "Soy Capital of India" due to its massive soybean processing industry.
On May 24th, 2026, 42 grooms, along with their families and relatives, showed up to a mass wedding ceremony in Dewas, only to get publicly humiliated and find out in the harshest way that they were a part of a big scandal and that they would not be returning home with their brides.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?
The families were assured that young women from an orphanage would be brought to Dewas for the ceremony. The families were also told that a visit to Mata Tekri would be arranged for the ceremony on 24 May.
The families were also asked to pay between Rs. 12000 and Rs. 20000, while others alleged that a sum of Rs. 25000 was collected from each family.
On May 24, the grooms and their relatives arrived at the Radhaganj Club ground. They all were coming from different districts; therefore, some of them arrived as early as 8 AM, all dressed up for the wedding. Seeing no preparations for the wedding, no altar, no decorations, and no brides at the venue, they were shocked.
The families met Mukesh Bairagi and his wife, Sunita, who were organising this mass wedding ceremony. The couple kept assuring them that the brides were on their way. With the increasing anxiety and tense situation, their explanations also changed, but they convinced the families to wait. But by around 10 PM, it had become clear that they had been cheated on.
The investigation has revealed that the accused, Mukesh, and his wife had allegedly downloaded photographs of models and young women from social media and circulated them on mobile phones to convince the innocent family members that these were the brides. The families were convinced that the girls were from an orphanage.
"The prime accused, Mukesh and his wife have been arrested. We are gathering details about their modus operandi. Any additional complaints received at the police station in this matter will also be incorporated into the investigation. Since the accused are from Vidisha district, a team has also been sent there to collect further information," Bhadoria said.
Later on, it was also revealed that the total involved in the fraud is estimated to be over Rs. 10 lakh. During questioning, Mukesh said his elder brother, Dinesh Das Bairagi from Indore, had informed him about arranging marriages for girls from an orphanage.
He claimed Dinesh had shared the contact details of the groom’s family. Mukesh told the police that after the families arrived in Dewas, Dinesh assured him over phone calls that he would bring the brides soon. However, no one arrived, and Dinesh’s phone was later switched off. Mukesh also alleged that his father-in-law, Narsingh Das Bairagi, helped organise the scheme.
The scam exploited a genuine social pressure point — the difficulty many rural families in India face in finding brides for their sons — and combined it with a veneer of legitimacy through fake profiles, promises of a fully arranged ceremony, and a real venue setting. It's a grim reminder of how matrimonial fraud is increasingly using social media to prey on vulnerable families.
HOW DO SCAMMERS EXPLOIT THE INNOCENT?
These scamsters take advantage of the insecurities of innocent people and lure them into traps; this is not the first time we have heard of such crimes. These scammers lure innocent families by manipulating them and falsely promising; these families often get stuck in an emotional trap, and the scammers feed on their vulnerability. Making money by stealing from those who have worked for years to earn this money is a very shameful act.
It’s not just the financial loss; it’s the mental toll of being “stood up” in front of their community that has these men shattered. They were promised a holy union in the form of marriage, only to have their dignity torn and their deepest insecurities preyed upon.
SOME SIMILAR CASES
In 2025, a 23-year-old woman and her network conned at least 25 men across Rajasthan, MP, UP, and Bihar in just seven months. The gang arranged court marriages through brokers, after which the bride would flee with cash, gold, and valuables within days of the wedding. She was ultimately arrested after the police set a trap with a decoy groom.
In one instance in Thane, an aspiring bride was duped out of Rs 1.65 lakh by a scammer posing as an English marine engineer, who demanded "courier charges" to send her expensive wedding gifts.
There are many more cases; some are reported, and some are not, because of the public humiliation faced by the victim's families.
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