DEHRADUN: Imagine a couple's surprise when they blessed and sent off their daughter for her Class XII exam in the morning, only to find her decked up in bridal wear and married in a neighbour's house at night!

The girl from Kotwali area near Vikasnagar had worn her school uniform and taken her parents' blessings on Friday before setting out for the exam. However, instead of going for the exam, she eloped with her neighbour, Devashish, to Dehradun and got married in a temple. They also got their marriage registered in a local court, police said.

When the girl did not return home till late, her worried parents informed the Vikasnagar police. On getting to know that she was in Devashish's house, they rushed there and were shocked to find their daughter in bridal finery, wrapped in a red sari and wearing sindoor, red bindi and a mangulsutra.

The girl told her parents that she had married Devashish and would now stay in his house. Enraged by this, the parents allegedly started beating up the new couple, prompting the police to intervene and take the girl into their custody.

"On being questioned, she produced her age and marriage certificates and told us that she would not go with her parents," station officer of Vikasnagar police station, Rajiv Dhandriyal, said.

The girl was later produced before Vikasnagar SDM Arivind Pandey, where she told him that she is 19 and her marriage has been solemnized according to Hindu traditions in a prominent temple in Dehradun. "After listening to the girl and seeing her age and marriage certificates, the SDM wished a happy married life to the couple and freed them," Dhandriyal said.