Indian bride dumps man who kissed her for a bet with friends: ‘He didn’t care about my self-respect’

‘I was shocked and felt insulted’

Representative: Indian bride in mass marriage in Ahmedabad on 23 October 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

A woman in India dumped her new husband and filed a police complaint after he allegedly kissed her in front of the wedding guests to win a bet with his friends.

The couple exchanged garlands as per rituals on 26 November in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh and was sitting on the stage when the groom suddenly kissed the bride in front of 300 guests.

After the incident, the bride left the stage and went to her room, reported India Today.

While her family attempted to pacify her, the bride, 23, refused to go back up on stage and instead went to the police station to file a complaint against the groom.

She alleged that the groom kissed her in order to win a bet with his friends and now she is “doubtful about his character”.

“He was touching me inappropriately while we were on the stage, but I ignored it,” the woman was quoted as saying byThe Times of India. “Then he did something unexpected. I was shocked and felt insulted,” she told the outlet.

“He did not care about my self-respect and acted badly in front of several guests. How would he act in the future?”

The groom refuted the allegations that he kissed her as a part of a Rs 1,500 (£15) bet, reported India Today.

According to the woman’s mother, “the groom was provoked by his friends.”

“We tried to convince my daughter but she refused to marry him. We have decided to wait for a few days and let her take some time to decide,” the mother said.

According to the police, “the couple is technically married as the rituals were done by the time the incident happened.”

This is not the first such incident of a bride leaving her groom at the alter. Several women in India have set precedent by walking away after dowry demands from the groom’s family. A wedding was cancelled in Shahjahanpur in the state after the groom broke into a ‘snake dance’.