Woman jumps into river, paramour escapes

GORAKHPUR:A 30-year-old Hindu woman jumped into the river Gandak on Saturday morning after entering into a suicide pact with her Muslim paramour even as the man deserted her and ran away at the last moment.

She was rescued by a retired Air force officer, Dheeraj Singh, who was passing through the bridge at Padrauna in Kushinagar where the incident took place.

According to Dheeraj, the woman, a resident of Hata in Kushinagar, had eloped with the man around a week ago as the duo feared that their parents will not allow them to live together.

“My mind was not working” the women told some persons in the crowd on being asked why she took the extreme step.

“People who gathered at the site started whispering that it was a case of love jihad after the woman revealed that she had entered into a suicide pact with her paramour, a Muslim, after his mother asked him to leave the woman because she was a Hindu. People started making a video of the woman and shared it on social media citing it as a case of love jihad,” said Dheeraj. He went on to claim that he defused the prevailing tension by telling people that it was a normal fight between a husband and wife and took the woman to the police station.

The police have not received any complaint in this regard so far and also denied the claim that people started vitiating the atmosphere in the name of ‘love jihad’ following the incident. The woman has been handed over to her kin in Ramkola.

“Both of them used to live in the same locality and were in a relationship. When their kin opposed the relationship, they decided to end their life by jumping into the river. While the women jumped into the river, the man ran away fearing for his life,” said SHO Padrauna Vijay Nath Singh.

The police are trying to trace the Muslim man and raided the house where the couple had been living together on rent in Hata.