Manikya Court Wedding Incident: 4 Years On, No Chargesheet, Hearing Scheduled for November 14
By Our Correspondent
Agartala, November 3, 2025
A shocking instance of administrative inertia has once again come to light in Tripura. Nearly four years after the sensational Manikya Court wedding incident, police have yet to submit an investigation report against then West Tripura District Magistrate Shailesh Kumar Yadav, IAS. Despite multiple court dates and repeated orders from the lower court, the police have continuously failed to file the report. The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court, West Tripura, has now fixed November 14 as the next date of hearing and directed the investigating officer to submit the long-pending report.
What makes the matter even more surprising is that the existence of a case in the lower court was virtually concealed for years. The complainant, Dr. Swapan Kumar Deb of Dhaleswar Kalyani, father of the bride whose wedding was disrupted, was unaware that a case had even been officially registered. Neither he nor the public was informed about the progress of the investigation.
Dr. Deb had filed an FIR (Case No. 083/2021) at the West Agartala Police Station on April 27, 2021, under Sections 323 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), both bailable offences. However, questions have been raised over why more serious sections, particularly those related to molestation and outraging modesty, were omitted despite clear allegations of such acts in the FIR.
In his complaint, Dr. Deb alleged that on the night of April 26, 2021, around 11:05 p.m., District Magistrate Shailesh Kumar Yadav, accompanied by a team of officials, stormed into the wedding venue at Manikya Court, North Gate, and began assaulting guests indiscriminately, including elderly men, women, and even the presiding priest. Despite showing him a valid municipal order permitting the ceremony, Yadav allegedly tore it up and threw the pieces at the bride’s family.
The FIR further accuses Yadav of using abusive language against women, touching them inappropriately, and disrupting a Hindu religious ritual by extinguishing the sacred fire, causing deep distress to the wedding party and offending religious sentiments.
Despite the seriousness of the allegations, police never interrogated Yadav even once. Neither was any formal action taken by the state administration. Observers within the state officers have remarked that if the accused were a TCS officer or any other state official, they would likely have been suspended and thoroughly investigated by now.
The matter in a separate complaint reached the Tripura High Court, but Dr. Deb, dissatisfied with the outcome, approached the Supreme Court of India, which subsequently directed the state government to file an affidavit regarding the case. It was during this stage that the existence of the ongoing lower court case was revealed. The state government informed the Supreme Court that a case was indeed pending before the West Tripura CJM Court, though no investigation report had yet been filed.
Meanwhile, as the next hearing approaches on November 14, all eyes will be on whether the police finally comply with the court’s order and submit the long-awaited investigation report in one of Tripura’s most controversial administrative controversies.
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