Indian police have arrested a serial-matchmaker who has been duping women of large dowries after "marrying them" off to his brothers in Canada.

The man identified as Ranjit Singh was wanted in connection with sham-marriages he had arranged in the cities of Chandigarh, Mohali, Moga, Ludhiana and Karnal in Punjab.

Police allege that Ranjit Singh would search for rich Punjabi girls who were looking to marry someone in Canada in order to migrate.

He would then organize the wedding with one of his Canada-based brothers.

Wanted: Snoops to spy on Canadian men seeking brides in India

"After the wedding was over his brother would return to Canada leaving the girl behind," a police official told local media.

Police estimate that the family-scam made over a million rupees while leaving a trail of abandoned brides.

Meanwhile, the Indian government plagued with overseas Indians from Canada and elsewhere abandoning their wives after coming home to marry them is looking to set up a global spy network to check on the eligible bachelors.

The spies--appointed volunteers--will operate in Canada, The United States, Britain and Australia among other countries with a large overseas Indian population.

The spies will make discreet inquiries about bachelors who have set their sights on the Indian marriage mart and liaise with local Indian diplomatic missions, Mumbai media reported.

The first appointments will be done by the Union Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in January at a conference to be held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Nariman Point, Mumbai, from January 7 to 9.

"There are 10,000 cases in Punjab alone of Non-Resident Indian husbands abandoning their wives. In Gujarat about 12,000 cases have been reported," said Jagdish Tytler minister of state for Overseas Indian Affairs.

October 21, 2004 front page story of the Asian Pacific Post

The article examined the issue saying that an endless stream of heart wrenching testimonies has shed light on the social evil, particularly in Punjab where most of Canada's 500,000 Indo-Canadians are from.

The Asian Pacific Post reported that the Punjab-based Lok Bhalai Party estimates that there are at least 15,000 cases of abandoned wives in the state alone adding the phenomenon has attained the specter of organized crime.

Over the last few years, the party has taken over 1,100 cases of abandoned wives to court.

Goldy Bhatia, a veteran counselor from the Surrey-Delta Immigrant Services Society in British Columbia said she has referred between 30 to 40 cases of marital fraud to Immigration Canada but has seen little in terms of enforcement action.

"Hardly a day goes by without having to deal with issues involving an abandoned bride from India," she told the paper.

The rising trend in marital frauds involving Indo-Canadians has also prompted a Vancouver law firm--Singh, Abrahams and Joomrartty--to set up shop in Punjab and offer free initial legal advice. "This is a social evil and a stigma on the reputation of Canada and the Canadians in general," said Amandeep Singh, one of the partners of a legal firm during the official opening of their office in Chandigarh, Punjab last September.

"I have come across nearly two dozen cases of marital fraud in which the husband or the wife have vanished on reaching Canada on the strength of purported marriage with the Canadian citizen" Singh said.