In Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras region, video footage showing a bride firing four rounds in five seconds from a revolver onstage has gone viral, prompting police action. The woman is believed to be on the run.
Video footage depicts a man handing over a loaded revolver to the bride, sitting alongside the groom on stage for celebratory firing. She looks up and fires four shots in rapid succession while looking blankly ahead, seemingly nervous.
After which, she returns the revolver back to him while another man can be heard laughing in the background.
UP Bride Fire in her marriage: Video Clip
On Friday night, a wedding event was held at a guest house in Salempur village of Hathras Junction area. Police are currently investigating the video for further action.
After the jaimaal (garlanding) ceremony, during which the couple garlanded each other and sought blessings from family members and posed for photographs, a man in black shirt, apparently from the bride’s family, climbed onto the stage and stood near her. After standing there a while, he pulled out his waistgun and handed it over to her as if she’d been expecting it.
Hathras Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ashok Kumar Singh confirmed that a case has been registered based on the video evidence and will soon begin questioning the bride’s family members. They are also trying to identify who was holding the gun, according to Singh.
Due to the often tragic injuries and deaths caused by celebratory shootings in North India, law was eventually passed that prohibited it.
In December 2019, however, The Centre amended The Arms Act to make celebratory firing with licensed guns at public gatherings, religious places, marriage ceremonies or other functions a criminal offence punishable by up to two years in jail or fine of Rs 1 lakh; cases can even be filed even if no one was hurt.
In 2016, the high court in Lucknow ordered police to file a case in every incident of celebratory firing, even if no formal complaints have been lodged.
