Man who backed out from marriage, gets beaten up

The incident took place when the accused came to Somwarpet police station to sign documents after getting bail from the court.

Santhosh Kumar from Akki Aloor from Haveri agreed to marry a girl from a village near Somwarpet. Accordingly the wedding was fixed for October 28 but two days before the wedding Santhosh contacted the girl’s family and said that the marriage cannot take place because there has been a death in his family.

When Santhosh showed no interest in getting married, scared family members of the girl approached the police and filed a case. Following the complaint, on Wednesday Santhosh came to the police station after getting bail from court, along with his sister.

When people came to know about Santhosh’s visit, they gathered outside the station and demanded that Santhosh should pay Rs 2 lakh to girl’s family as they had made all arrangements for the marriage, which never took place.

Taluk Panchayat President Lokesh Kumar and others initiated a talk with the sister of Santhosh and said that the girl’s family will withdraw the complaint if they pay Rs 2 lakh to the family.

However, Santhosh turned down the offer. He argued that he would pay Rs 60,000 initially and later agreed to pay Rs 1 lakh.

This attitude of Santhosh raged the villagers. Though Santhosh agreed to pay Rs 1.25 lakh later, he refused to sign the agreement paper. At this stage the villagers who lost their temper attacked Santhosh. Police wielded lathi to get situation under control.

After being attacked, Santhosh agreed to sign the agreement.