Bihar teacher forced to marry kidnapper’s daughter on gunpoint after getting kidnapped

According to the police, the kidnapping took place in Bihar's Vaishali district.

Patna: To become a teacher, Gautam Kumar just passed the Bihar Public Service Commission test. Three or four persons showed up at his school on Wednesday and dragged him away by force. He was forced to wed the kidnapper’s daughter at gunpoint within 24 hours.

Is it a Bihari custom?

Such force marriages or ‘Pakdwa Vivah’ are not isolated but are part of a tradition in Bihar’s Begusarai, Munger, Banka, Madhepura, Purnia, Jehanabad, Jamvi. Often, eligible bachelors are abducted and forced to marry women whose families cannot afford dowries.

Series of events explained…

The authorities claim that the kidnapping happened in the Vaishali region of Bihar, where Mr. Kumar was recently hired as a teacher at the Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya in Repura, Patepur. In response to the event, Mr. Kumar’s family blocked a road on Wednesday night in protest, and the police then started looking for the missing teacher.

The individual named Rajesh Rai was held accountable by Mr. Kumar’s family. They claim that Mr. Kumar was taken away by force by Mr. Rai’s family and married to Mr. Rai’s daughter Chandni.

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This is just another case in Bihar

Mr. Kumar reportedly suffered physical abuse for turning down the marriage proposal. According to police, Mr. Kumar emphasized the recent ruling by the Patna High Court that dissolved the ten-year forced marriage between a Nawada Armyman and a Lakhisarai woman.

The police claim that a FIR has been filed in relation to the crime, and that an investigation has been started in order to pursue additional legal action against the abductors.

In Bihar, “Pakadwa Vivah” is a common occurrence. When a veterinarian called in to check on a sick animal last year, three people abducted him and forced him into marriage in Begusarai. A similar occurrence involving a Bihari engineer made national news a few years ago. Next, a woman in the Pandarak region of Patna was forced to marry 29-year-old Vinod Kumar, a junior manager at the Bokaro Steel Plant, after he was beaten.

Srishti Verma