A dhuti-panjabi clad groom who stepped out of a Kanchrapara ceremony house a couple of hours before the marriage rituals to sniff heroin was caught in the act by police on Monday evening.

More bad news awaited Biplob Kundu, a CD parlour owner from Chakdah in Nadia, as Chaitali Das (name changed) declined to marry “a drug addict”.

The 35-year-old was handcuffed and taken to Bijpur police station, where he spent the night behind bars.

“A patrol team conducted a raid on a roadside den in Bhoot Bagan and picked up some drug addicts. The presence of three well-dressed young men, one of them in dhuti-panjabi, came as a surprise to our officers,” said Praveen Tripathi, the additional superintendent of police, Barrackpore.

The trio claimed that they had stepped out of the adjacent ceremony house for a puff.

“Our officers were not convinced and they conducted a body search of the youths. Five grams of heroin was found on the man in dhuti-panjabi. The officers went to the ceremony house and learnt that he was the groom,” added Tripathi.

This was around 7pm and more than 100 guests of the bride’s family were at the marriage venue. Kundu and the 50-odd members of the bridegroom’s party had arrived an hour earlier.

“I was shocked and didn’t know what to do. I was pleading with the cops to release my would-be son-in-law. But when my daughter learnt about the arrest, she refused to marry a drug addict,” said Chaitali’s father Bankim (name changed).

“I tried to convince her that it was a one-off incident but she stuck to her stand. On hindsight, I realise she was right and I am proud of her. I have already found another groom for her and would marry her off this wedding season,” added Bankim, who manages a music band that plays at weddings.

Chaitali’s resolve came as a surprise even to the policemen, who were hesitating to arrest Kundu on his wedding day. “Our job became easy as the bride took a stand. We arrested Kundu along with his two friends,” said an officer.

The three were produced in a Barrackpore court on Tuesday and was released on bail.