A British Columbia judge canceled the marriage of a woman to another member of a “cult group” based in India, saying that she had not “really agreed” to marriage in 2023.
The decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia said this week that the woman said that she had been manipulated and overwhelmed by a “dam” of openings of the man and her family which began in October 2022.
The decision of judge Ian Caldwell said that the woman was an 18-year-old permanent resident in Canada when she was contacted by the man, who lived in New Zealand and was about 32.
The decision says that she did not want to marry, but the man and his family “persisted”, bringing a “sacred food gift” to his workplace and claiming that the union was “blessed” by a priest of the religious group of Dera Sacha Sada.
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The man’s sister warned that the refusal of marriage would invite “anger” of the religious community.
Caldwell’s decision found the marriage “empty”, saying that the man “continued, harassed and perhaps even hunted down” the adolescent who was under stress when marriage occurred in Abbotsford, British Columbia
The decision indicates that the woman had finally agreed to marry on April 25, 2023 and had been recovered at work the next day by the parent of the man.
She was taken to a house where a Punjabi wedding combination was waiting for her, and the ceremony occurred that day without her family.
The woman, the judge noted: “had clearly said to the respondent that she did not wish to marry, and certainly not to him.
“She has expressed this several times. He refused to accept” no “for an answer.”
The woman turned the wedding ring shortly after the ceremony, the marriage was never consumed and she did not go to New Zealand to live with the man, who left Canada the following month.
The judge noted that the woman said that she was “overwhelmed, in a state of shock, and unable to fully understand what was going on” when the Whirlwind marriage took place.
“It is not necessary to look far to be confronted with the realities of other young people, also in adolescence, which have taken drastic measures, including suicide, in the face of such challenges and threats to social position and reputation,” said judge Caldwell.
The Dera Sacha Sada group is led by a guru called Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan, who was found guilty of having violated two disciples and assassination a journalist.
He purges a perpetuity imprisonment in India.
– with files from the Associated Press
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press