West Tripura DM forcibly stops wedding, apologises

Agartala, Apr 27 (PTI) The district magistrate of West Tripura, Sailesh Kumar Jadav forcibly stopped a wedding ceremony here while enforcing COVID-19 protocol and apologized for his actions on Tuesday.

Yadav had allegedly stopped the wedding ceremony when it was half way through at a venue here on Monday night.

He was seen in a video footage tearing the document of the permission taken from him for holding the ceremony. He was also seen forcing the invitees and others who were at the venue to leave and ordering policemen who were with him to drive them out of the venue.

"I apologise if any individual or group is pained by last night's action. But what was done last night was only for the benefit and well being of people. My aim was not to pain or humiliate anyone," Jadav said in Hindi to reporters on Tuesday.

The video went viral on the social media and many leaders of the ruling BJP, including MLA of the area Asish Saha and another lawmaker of the party Sushanta Chowdhury wrote to Manoj Kumar Chief Secretary on Tuesday deamnding the removal of the DM.

BJP MP from West Tripura district and the senior most party leader, Pratima Bhowmik said she will herself visit the bride's home and speak to her and her family members.

"It is true that what the administration is doing to contain COVID is for our good, but what happened last night is most undesirable. It should not have happened," she said.

The chairman of Tripura Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance, Pradyot Kishore Debbarma, who is also the owner of the wedding venue, described the incident as "most unfortunate and regrettable" and demanded an inquiry into it.

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