Wedding planner dupes 59-yr-old of Rs 1.65 lakh

A 59-year-old man was reportedly duped of Rs 1.65 lakh by a wedding planner in outer Delhi. Surprisingly, the wedding planner showed a fake union ministry of urban development letter to dupe the victim. The accused woman is still absconding.

According to complainant Atul Kumar Sood, a resident of Rohini, he was looking for a wedding planner to organise his daughter’s wedding scheduled for 30 April. In a bid to ensure that the wedding was planned to the last detail, Sood wanted to hire the best in the business. He had been on the look out for the planner since December 2012 and finally in January, he came across a website, www.360weddingplanners.in.

Sood organised a meeting with Ira Malik, the wedding planner, at his residence the same month. He introduced his daughter Gunjan Sood (27) who is a graduate from Delhi University and an MBA from Amity Universit to Maliky. A deal to spend Rs 5 lakh was done between Sood and Malik. She demanded 10 per cent as her commission.

Later the same month, the duo went to look for the wedding venue. Malik showed Sood various bungalows in the posh locality of Lutyen’s Zone. 

When Sood asked her how will she manage to get the permission to organise a wedding in the bungalows allotted to government officials, she said that she had contacts with some politicians who help her in getting the permission to conduct the functions.

Bungalow No. 5 on Ashoka Road was selected as the venue for the wedding. Malik demanded Rs 1.85 lakh as advance to book the bungalow, arrange caterers, decorators and other expenditures. Sood paid the money to Malik but didn’t get a receipt for the same. On 13 January, Malik handed over a letter to Sood which said that he has been permitted to conduct his daughter’s wedding on 30 April.

On 7 March, Malik handed over another letter signed by Jamal Rashid, ministry of urban development that confirmed the permission grante to conduct the wedding at the bungalow. 

However, when on 22 March Sood tried getting in touch with Malik, he found her phone was switched off. He reached her house but found it locked. 

When he showed the letter to the authorities, Sood was told that he has been duped by the wedding planner.

As the date of the wedding was close, Sood managed to arrange a guest house for the wedding. 

But Sood kept looking for Malik. A month later, he managed to find her. When threatened with legal action, Malik gave Rs 20,000 back and promised to return the remaining amount soon. She has gone missing since then.

On 28 August, Sood lodged a complaint against Malik. 

The investigating officer said that the accused woman is absconding and a serach is on to identify her possible hide-outs. A case under the appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against Ira Malik for duping the complainant of Rs 1.65 lakh, the officer said.