Raipur: Police on Tuesday arrested a bride’s former lover in Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district, for allegedly killing a groom and his brother on Monday in a blast after placing an explosive wedding gift at their home-theatre music system.
The home theatre, it turns out, was rigged with explosives, and was a gift from the ex-boyfriend of the bride, the police investigation has revealed.
Seven members of the family were injured.
Police identified the home-theatre bomb suspect as 33-year-old Sarju Markam, who is married and has two children. He was arrested from Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, around 100km away, on Tuesday.
Police said that Markam was in a relationship with a 29-year-old woman and insisted that she become his second wife. Her family would have none of it and fixed her wedding with Hemendra, 30, who had no clue about this history, said police.
Furious at this, Markam decided to take revenge, said police. Investigators said that he bought a home-theatre system, stuffed 2kg of explosives inside the speakers, and rigged the IED to explode on electrical contact. Markam used to work in the blasting department at a crusher plant in Indore, so he could lay his hands on explosives and knew how to put together a bomb, said police.
Markam went to the wedding on March 31, presented the gift to a family member without being recognised, and quietly slipped out, said an officer. The family opened the ‘gift’ three days later, on Monday, and were thrilled to see a home theatre although the package had no name or address. It exploded as soon as they plugged it in. The groom was killed on the spot and his brother died in the hospital.