Uttarakhand CM dismisses concerns over controversial family's weddings

The sons of two of the Gupta brothers will be getting married in Auli this week

Rawat Auli collage A collage of Trivendra Singh Rawat with Amit Shah (Twitter handle of Trivendra Singh Rawat) and an aerial shot of Auli (Twitter handle of Uttarakhand Tourism)

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday dubbed as "unnecessary" environmental concerns being raised over the marriage ceremonies of the sons of two of the Gupta brothers, prominent NRI businessmen based in South Africa, in the ski resort of Auli. The Gupta brothers were in the limelight last year after they were accused of having excessive influence on then South African president Jacob Zuma.

Rawat sought to play down the controversy, saying the Gupta event will promote Uttarakhand as a wedding destination instead. The marriage ceremony of Ajay Gupta's son, Suryakant, is to be held in Auli on June 19-20, while the wedding of Atul Gupta's son, Shashank, is to be held there on June 21-22.

The event has been planned on a big scale, with over 50 Bollywood celebrities likely to attend it.

Rawat said while touring the country to invite industrialists and entrepreneurs to the investors' summit held in Dehradun in October 2018, he had told prospective investors about the places of great scenic beauty in the state where people could go for their weddings instead of going abroad.

"The Gupta brothers have chosen Auli for the weddings of their sons and it would help promote the state as a wedding destination," Rawat told reporters in Dehradun.

On fears about the possible harms that the event could cause to the fragile Himalayan ecology, Rawat said they were "unnecessary" as Auli was not a meadow or a bugyal. "It is a category one land where tourists keep coming all the year round. There are Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam hotels in Auli and no unnecessary issue should be created out of the proposed weddings," he said.

The Gupta brothers, who originally hail from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, currently live in Dubai with business ventures in South Africa. Companies run by the Gupta brothers had been accused of wrongdoing in multiple contracts related to mining, railways and arms contracts in South Africa.