15-year-old commits suicide after being forced to marry widowed sister-in-law
GAYA: A 15-year-old boy committed suicide two hours after he was forced to marry his widowed sister-in-law, 10 years older than him, in south Bihar’s Gaya.
The wedding, solemnised on Monday at Vinoba Nagar village under Paraiya police station, about 15km west of Gaya, flies in the face of a campaign by the Nitish Kumar government to end the practices of child marriage and dowry in the state.
Police said Mahadev Das, a Class 9 student of the government high school in Paraiya, married 25-year-old Ruby Devi, the widow of his elder brother Santosh and mother of his two children, as his father came under pressure from relatives and villagers.
A large number of these were present during the wedding rituals at a village temple. Ten people, four from the groom’s side and six from the bride’s, signed on a draft to validate the marriage. Mahadev left for his home immediately after the rituals that concluded at 5pm and hanged himself with a towel at 7pm, the police added.
He was apparently unhappy with his marriage to a woman “who used to take care of him like her own children”, Mahadev’s father Chandreshwar Das said.
Chandreshwar, a physically challenged man, said the ₹ 80,000 he received as compensation after his eldest son’s death cost him the life of his other child.
“My eldest son was working as an electrician with a private firm at Gaya. When he died from electrocution in 2013, the company he worked for had given ₹80,000 as compensation and the entire amount was deposited in my account,” said Chandreshwar.
“My daughter-in-law and her parents were mounting pressure on me to transfer the amount to the account of Ruby. I had already deposited ₹27,000 and assured her parents of transferring the remaining amount later. But they exerted pressure on me to either give the money or marry Ruby to my son,” he said.
Tekari subdivisional police officer (SDPO) Manish Kumar reached Vinoba Nagar on Wednesday and admonished Paraiya police over the child marriage. Subsequently, Paraiya police, which had registered a case of unnatural death on Tuesday, lodged a fresh FIR. Nine people, who attended the wedding, have been named accused.
Kumar told HT that he was looking into the case. “An FIR has now been lodged under various sections of the child marriage act and also for inciting the boy into committing suicide,” he added.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday called for an end to child marriage and dowry during his 11th tour of the state since coming to power in 2005.