KOLKATA, India (AFP) - Police in eastern India are hunting a groom who quit his marriage ceremony midway when his bride's parents said they could not meet his dowry demand of a motorcycle, an official said.
Rajiv Shaw, 31, walked out of the ceremony at Chitpur on the outskirts of the West Bengal state capital of Calcutta Saturday after springing the surprise demand, police official Sheikh Abdul Rajjack said.
The bride's mother, Urmila Devi, said her daughter's marriage with Shaw, an autorickshaw driver, was fixed last November.
She had handed over 65,000 rupees (1,480 dollars) in cash besides furniture, kitchen utensils and gold ornaments as a dowry.
"Rajiv demanded a motorcycle on the day of marriage," Devi said.
"My husband is an employee in a local electric shop. We have sold out everything to get our daughter married. It's beyond our reach to give him a motorcycle," she told AFP.
Police were on the lookout for Shaw after arresting his father and the matchmaker who arranged the wedding on charges of seeking dowry, Rajjack said.
Although the demanding and giving of a dowry was officially banned in 1961, the practice continues.
Every year, about 6,000 women are killed in India -- often doused with kerosene and set on fire in staged kitchen "accidents" -- or harassed into suicide by husbands and in-laws angered by unmet dowry demands.
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