Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: A village panchayat in Bihar’s northern Madhubani district forcibly conducted the wedding of a minor boy and a minor girl who had been in love and then, when the girl became pregnant and was driven out of the house by her in-laws due to lack of dowry, kept quiet.

The 14-year-old girl said to be three months pregnant, turned homeless when her own parents disallowed her from entering their house.

The incident in Belojan village under Patauna police station has raised question marks on the wisdom of the elected village panchayat members and violation of the provision of age in the prevailing law on marriage.

“We are probing under what conditions and whose orders the wedding of the minor couple was organised. A case of physical torture of the minor girl by her in-laws has been registered and the woman’s police station is investigating it,” said Madhubani SP Deepak Barnwal.

The minor girl, a student of class IX, and the boy, 15 and in Class X, are both residents of the same village. When they were seen together frequently, villagers raised a hue and cry and forced the panchayat to take a “suitable decision”.

“In a meeting of the panchayat three months ago, it was decided that the minor couple must get married, and so the next day their wedding was organised and the girl started living in the boy’s house,” said a source.

But the boy’s parents allegedly started harassing the girl for dowry as she had got no valuables with her because her wedding took place all of a sudden.

Turned away by both her in-laws and her own parents, the girl spent two nights in the open verandah of the village temple in the chilly winter cold before Child Welfare Committee officials intervened.

“The girl was first sent for medical examination at a local hospital and then shifted to a local NGO, where she is now living,” said Barnwal.