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KENDRAPADA: Sanghamitra Sethi (22) is known as a firebrand activist and anti-liquor crusader in her village Baniamala, in Odisha 's Jajpur district . A member of a self-help group (SHG), she had forced shut a liquor shop in the nearby Namatara village two years ago. Thus, when her groom turned up drunk at their wedding on Monday night, Sanghamitra promptly walked out on him.

Her groom, Hadibandhu Sethi of Jajpur's Pradhanpanda village, was perhaps unaware of his bride's dislike for liquor. All was smooth sailing for the 28-year-old, who works as a cook in Kolkata, till the couple sat down at the mandap for the wedding rituals in the girl's village.

As the priest chanted the mantras and the guests looked on, Sanghamitra - nose attuned to the smell of drink - caught a whiff of liquor on Sethi's breath. That was enough for her to flow into a rage, give her would-be husband a piece of her mind and storm out of the mandap.

"As part of the SHG's work, we have closed down several liquor shops in my village and its surrounding areas in the past two years. My blood boiled the moment I came to know that my would-be husband was a drunkard. I decided to call off the wedding because this just shows that he is not a responsible man. He is unfit for marriage," Sanghamitra said.

While the parents of both Sanghamitra and Hadibandhu tried their best to convince her to proceed with the wedding, some of her friends supported her decision to call off the wedding.

In a meeting called by the villagers of Baniamala, the father of the groom was directed to return Rs 71,000, a gold chain and a gold ring which Sanghamitra's father had given to Hadibandhu at the time of the betrothal.

While the spurned groom could not be contacted, the president of the SHG that Sanghamitra works for praised her for her actions. "She set a precedent in our village by refusing to marry a drunkard," said Sanjukta Jena, president of Ma Mangal SHG of Baniamala village.

Sanghamitra is not worried about being stigmatized.

