Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja will get married to Rivaba Solanki on April 17.
The three-day-long wedding ceremony will take place at Jadeja's native village and in the city of Rajkot. Ahead of the wedding ceremony, Jadeja was gifted and an Audi Q7, worth Rs 97 lakh, by his in-laws.
The cricketer flaunted the spectacular new 'gift', getting pictures clicked of himself and his fiance unveiling the Audi.
However, this news raises an important question - is calling this a 'gift' being too gentle? Can this not be categorised as dowry?
After all, dowry is defined as 'an amount of property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage'. Under Indian law, dowry has been illegal since 1961 under the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.
Here's the definition of dowry under the Act:
In this Act, “dowry” means any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly.
(a) By one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage, or (b) By the parent of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person.
Can it then be concluded that Rivaba's parents, since they gave Jadeja property in the form of a car, have in fact given him dowry?
Startlingly though, neither Ravindra Jadeja nor his wife seem even slightly perturbed by this. You can see them in a happy mood here as they pose for the cameras while sitting in the car.
Ravindra and Rivaba got engaged on February 5 earlier this year. Rivaba is a mechanical engineer and only child of Hardevsinh and Prafullaba Solanki of Rajkot. Jadeja for his part, hails from a Rajput family in Gujarat. His father Anirudhsinh was a watchman for a private security agency. His sister Naina is a nurse.
