Are dotcom marriages ticket to quick divorces?

Just 20 days after his marriage, Rajiv Gupta (name changed) got the biggest shocker of his life: his bride ran away. And a week later, he was called by Vastrapur police -  his wife alleged that Rajiv had  not revealed his ‘impotency’ before marriage and that he had subjected her to dowry harassment.

At the same police station, two other cases were lodged this year, in which the men faced more or less similar charges from their wives.

Recently, a faculty of a reputed college in the city alleged that her husband was impotent. She said in the FIR that she had not been informed about the problem prior to their marriage.

All these marriages were results of online match-making made through matrimonial portals. In such cases, the couples are splitting a few days after being into the wedlock thanks to serious issues that crop up between them.

These cases are not isolated ones. There are dozens of cases in which the marriage has collapsed even before the couples actually tied the knot.

In most of the cases, the couples do not get to know about each other fully before they decide to take the plunge. Some blame the portals for keeping them in the dark about their partners’ “weak points and grey areas”.  But many such cases are not reported to the police. The affected couples fear that their image will be at stake if they approach the police.

Assistant commissioner of police and in-charge of women’s cell, Sudha Pandey, said that the instances of marriages _ fixed through websites _ breaking down have set a peculiar trend. She says that couples split because they come to know about their differences after the marriage.

“I have seen a few such cases in which the husband and wife belonged to two different worlds. For instance, the woman was from Ahmedabad while the man she married lived in Chennai. After marriage, there were cultural differences and many other issues which led to their separation,” she said, adding that the problem could be avoided if would-be couples did a proper background check before marriage.

The police say the outcome of such marriages is devastating. “Such couples turn to blame-games after the split. In the case of Rajiv, who works with a well-known institute in the city; he was booked for cheating as he didn’t reveal his impotency, an allegation that is yet to be confirmed. In any case, it is the accused who always suffers,” said an official of Vastrapur police station.

Cultural clash apart, monetary disputes and other petty allegations from both sides take toll on the matrimonial relationship. According to the police, cases that come to them seem ‘vindictive’ as well.