WHAT was supposed to end in wedded bliss for a bride ended in tragedy due to a scorned lover’s wedding gift.
According to a report by the Indian Express, a newlywed man and his brother had perished in an explosion due to his wife’s ex-boyfriend’s wedding gift that had exploded in their house located in Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district, India.
It was reported that the perpetrator is a 33-year-old man named Sarju Markam who worked as a mechanic and is married with two children. He simply could not bear his former girlfriend leaving him for another man and tried to dissuade her from going on with her wedding plans.
The former girlfriend was arranged to be married to 25-year-old farmer Hermendra Merawi by her family on March 31. Sarju found out and reached out to her, saying: “You are getting married but you will never be happy,” on Mar 30.
Sarju then threatened Hermendra through a phone call later on. The Superintendent of Police Lal Umed Singh confirmed that: “They had an altercation. Hemendra also had a talk with his fiancé and the issue was settled,” or so the newlyweds thought at the time.
After speaking to his former girlfriend and her new husband, the scorned man got to work on his revenge.
During an interrogation with the police, he said that not only he knew how to repair electronic devices, but he dabbled in explosives during his time working at a stone-crushing unit for two years back in 2015
Sarju’s wedding gift was a home music system rigged with explosive materials comprising 1.5 kilograms of gunpowder, extracted from firecrackers, petrol and other materials which he purchased for 1,000 rupees (RM53.78) from a shop.
After disguising his explosive device as a wedding gift, Sarju headed to Hermendra’s wedding venue with his friend on March 31.
“He did not tell his friend about his plan. The friend waited outside the venue and the accused went in and quickly came out after keeping the gift under other gifts near the mandap,” Lal Umed Singh added.
The home music system had exploded at Hermendra’s home at 11.30 am three days after the wedding, killing him and his older brother Rajkumar, 30, after unpacking it and plugging it at their home located near the Madhya Pradesh border, according to Assistant Superintendent of Police Manisha Thakur.
The explosion blew away the roof of Hermendra’s house and damaged three walls. Besides the two siblings’ deaths, five others, including a child were injured during the explosion.
Meanwhile, the bride was still at her parent’s home as per the wedding rituals at the time and would join her husband later on.
Sarju was arrested on the same day the explosion occured, after being noted as the prime suspect following the interrogation of his former girlfriend and other family members by the police.
