Detective agency furnishes false information to groom, gets sued

NEW DELHI: With weddings in India being as grand and expensive as they are, the families involved often hire private investigators to check up on a prospective bride or groom.


Interestingly, there is no dearth of such 'pre-matrimonial detective agencies' that investigate and verify people's past relationships, earnings, and any other relevant information.

But what happens when the detective himself goes rogue?

This is what happened to a Kolkata family, which hired a

private detective

to verify the information provided by a prospective bride from Chandigarh.

The family found out about the woman from an advertorial, and keen to cross-check the details provided, got on board a private detective from

Mohali

.

The family paid the agency's owner

Nirmal Chandra Bhalla

Rs 10,000, and received the information in three emails.

But they were not convinced, and finally demanded proof of the girl's higher education. The agency failed to fulfill the request and allegedly stopped responding to their communication. When the family visited Mohali, they were shocked to find out that the girl's details provided by the agency were completely false.

The groom's mother, the principal of an eminent Kolkata school, appealed to the consumer forum against the agency. But when the court summoned the agency, nobody showed up.

There was no response to an advertisement against the agency published in a Chandigarh newspaper either.

The court eventually ordered the agency to compensate the family Rs 26,000 - of this, Rs 10,000 was the fee charged, and Rs 16,000 was the travel cost borne by the family to visit Mohali.

Read this story in Bengali