Mumbai: Expose of Valentine's Day touts fleecing couples forces them to clean house

Agent Mahesh seen working on a laptop in the waiting hall last wee

Hours after mid-day reported on touts in the marriage officer's premises, offering to send the officer for ‘home visits' to register marriages on Valentine's Day, a Sunday, for huge sums of money, not only the agents but also the furniture set up for their laptops disappeared. During a visit to the office, mid-day found that the place which was teeming with agents last week was bare on Monday.

Marriage Officer Sharayu Vivek Sawant told mid-day, "Earlier, many agents would visit my office but I regularly inspected the premises. I never saw any agent occupying seats here and doing work. I also instructed my staff to take action if they found any agent inside the office premises."

She added, "I will also register an FIR if I find any agent operating from the office. I don't even allow couples' relatives inside my office. I read the mid-day report but I don't have any knowledge about these people."

On Monday, mid-day found the furniture removed from the waiting hall

She added, "On Monday, I checked the waiting room area but there were no agents. I instructed my staff and conducted an internal enquiry about these agents. We can't take any action on the basis of a newspaper report," she said.

mid-day contacted the joint district registrar Narayan Rajput on phone on Monday morning. He said, "Did you personally visit the [Khar] office? Who gave you the photographs?"

When told that the agents were caught on video by mid-day reporters personally, he said he would visit the Khar office. When mid-day contacted Rajput in the evening to ask about what all he learnt about the presence of touts, he refused to divulge details.

Hemant More works on the laptop placed on wooden furniture in the waiting hall last week

A source told mid-day that without the knowledge of senior government officials, no touts can sit in the office premises, operate their laptops and solicit visitors.

The agents speak

mid-day contacted one of the agents, Hemant More, who said, "I was told by a friend from the [Khar] office that a story with my photographs has been published in a newspaper and I must not visit the office where I had been going every day for the past six years."

More, a native of Ambad in Nashik, lives in Thane with his wife. "I used to earn barely R15,000 a month but now I will have to start my life all over again," More said.

Another agent Anil Singh said, "The money I charge from people is for collecting documents from couples, submitting them to the registration office, filling up forms, arranging for dates, arranging a visit by the registrar, travel costs, etc. During lockdown, my business stopped. A few months ago, I resumed work. I also give receipts to couples after their marriage, issued by the registration office. I arrange two to three marriages daily and it takes over one to two hours to fill the application forms. During that time, I approach people and offer to do their work without any hassle. My work is to help people register their marriages and I do it professionally."

"I am not a criminal and have not cheated any couple. The couples happily give me money to do the work and it saves their time, too. Most of the people don't know how to go about things, so I help them and charge them for the service," Singh added.

4
No. of agents mid-day spoke to during a week-long investigation