As many as 46 couples who were to tie the knot at a mass marriage in Bellary ? part of an annual jamboree organised by Reddy brothers and attended by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj ? were turned away on Friday by district officials after it was found that the brides were not of marriageable age.
The development followed the doctors? refusal to certify that the brides were adults, sources said. The underage brides were discovered after officials demanded 10 different documents to approve the marriages.
However, the mass marriage went ahead with 311 approved couples tying the knot during a grand ceremony at the Bellary district grounds.
There had been apprehensions of child marriages being solemnised as part of the event, organised annually to mark the Varamahalakshmi Puja, after the Commission for Women and Child Development issued a warning in this regard.
The annual mass marriage, being held since 1999, has been a strategy of the Reddy brothers to stay popular in the district. Funded by the brothers, the event is held mostly in the name of B Sreeramulu, a close friend of G Janardhan Reddy ? both ministers in the BJP government along with G Karunakar Reddy. The Bellary event also marks an annual visit to the district by Sushma since she lost in the Bellary parliamentary polls in 1999 to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
G Somashekhar Reddy, the Bellary MLA, said no children were married off in the festivities on Friday.
?In the mass marriage event on Friday there was no one below the legal age. All certificates were verified before the event,? said Bellary Superintendent of Police M N Nagaraj.
Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who attended the event, said, ?We are elected by the people, and it is the duty and responsibility of all, including the Opposition leaders, to try and wipe out the tears of the public.?
Following allegations that 37 minor girls were married off at a similar mass marriage event in March, organised by Congress politician and mining businessman Santosh Lad, the Dharwad Deputy Commissioner had issued orders for strict scrutiny of all documents produced as age proof when mass marriages are organised.