Bihar ‘Pakadwa Vivah’: Teacher kidnapped, forced to marry kidnapper’s daughter

According to Indian Express, one Gautam Kumar, who had recently cleared the Bihar Public Service Commission exam, was kidnapped from the school he teaches in, and forced to marry kidnappers daughter. 

Gautam Kumar was appointed as a teacher at Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya in Patepur’s Repura. According to Indian Express report, three to four people arrived at the school in a four-wheeler and forcibly took Kumar away.

Following the incident, Gautam Kumar’s family protested by blocking a road on Wednesday night before the police initiated a search operation to locate the missing teacher.

The Bihar Police was able to locate Gautam Kumar on Thursday. 

Gautam Kumar, a resident of Maheya Malpur village, told the police that he was forcibly married to the daughter of one Rakesh Rai of Repura village, Indian Express report said. 

Kumar said the marriage was not acceptable to him and referred to a recent Patna High Court verdict that set aside a 10-year-old ‘forced marriage’ of a Nawada Armyman with a Lakhisarai girl, the police said.

Notably, Pakadwa Vivah is not an uncommon practice in Bihar. In 2022, a veterinarian, called in to check on a sick animal, was kidnapped by three people and forcibly married in Begusarai.

A few years ago, a similar incident involving an engineer in Bihar made national headlines. Then 29-year-old Vinod Kumar, a junior manager at Bokaro Steel Plant was thrashed and forced to wed a woman in Pandarak area in Patna, reports NDTV. 

Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the Confederation of All India Traders (Cait), between November 23 and December 15 this year, approximately 35 lakh weddings are expected to take place across the country, creating a significant economic surge in the wedding industry.

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Updated: 01 Dec 2023, 07:14 PM IST