Gautam Kumar, a teacher who recently passed the Bihar Public Service Commission exam, was kidnapped and forced to marry at gunpoint. The incident took place in Bihar’s Vaishali district, where Mr. Kumar worked at Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya in Patepur’s Repura.
On Wednesday, three to four individuals arrived at Mr. Kumar’s school and forcefully took him away. Within 24 hours, he was compelled to marry the daughter of one of the kidnappers under the threat of a gun. This incident adds to Bihar’s history of “Pakadwa Vivah” or groom kidnapping, where unmarried men are coerced into marriage at gunpoint.
Following the kidnapping, Mr. Kumar’s family protested by blocking a road on Wednesday night. Subsequently, the police initiated a search operation to locate the missing teacher. The blame for the incident was placed on a man named Rajesh Rai, with Mr. Kumar’s family accusing his family of forcibly taking Mr. Kumar and marrying him to Mr. Rai’s daughter, Chandni.
Mr. Kumar, who refused to accept the marriage proposal, also faced physical violence. He referenced a recent judgment by the Patna High Court that nullified a ten-year-old forced marriage between an Armyman from Nawada and a woman from Lakhisarai.
An FIR has been registered in connection with the case, and an investigation has been launched to take further action against the kidnappers. “Pakadwa Vivah” is not uncommon in Bihar, as similar incidents have occurred in the past. Last year, a veterinarian was kidnapped and forcibly married in Begusarai when called to attend to a sick animal. In another incident, an engineer named Vinod Kumar was thrashed and forced to marry a woman in the Pandarak area of Patna.
