Bihar: Father of groom, who died of coronavirus, booked

In the last week of May, the groom, who was employed as a software engineer in Gurugram, drove down to his hometown for the wedding.

By June 14, he complained of ill health and suggested deferring the wedding. However, both the families convinced him otherwise, citing financial issues and argued that rural areas have largely been unaffected.

He took paracetamol before his pre-wedding festivities.

On June 17, the groom's health deteriorated and his family finally took him to AIIMS, Patna, but he died mid-way. Reports suggested he was cremated in a jiffy, without the COVID-19 test, but someone tipped off the officials.

Soon, a massive contact tracing and testing exercise was launched to mitigate the damage of the super-spreader wedding.

A camp for testing was also set up.

An inquiry initiated by Patna District Magistrate Kumar Ravi found that Ambika didn't follow the guidelines. As per the Centre's rules, only 50 guests are allowed at a wedding but the attendees of this particular one topped over 100.

Most of them didn't wear masks.

In fact, the administration took stock of the number of plates to know how many guests attended the wedding.

As the matter got attention, a case was registered under relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act, which is in place since the outbreak of the disease. Meanwhile, Ambika, who is a government school teacher, denied that his son had contracted the virus.

He also claimed the last rites weren't performed in a jiffy.

Separately, Ambika himself is said to have tested COVID-19 positive.

In a similar incident, a businessman in Rajasthan's Bhilwara was booked after he flouted rules at his son's wedding, which led to over a dozen people getting infected with coronavirus.

A fine of over Rs. 6 lakh was levied on him and he was directed to pay for the treatment of the guests who fell sick after attending his son's lavish wedding.