Bihar Teacher Kidnapped On Way To School, Forced To Marry Woman At Gunpoint
NDTV
According to the police, 2024 witnessed the highest reported cases of forced weddings in the last 30 years.
Avnish Kumar had recently cleared the Bihar Public Service Commission exam to become a teacher. On Friday, while on his way to the school where he was employed, two Scorpios intercepted his e-rickshaw. A dozen unknown men got out of the vehicles and pointed guns at Avnish. Within hours, he was kidnapped, beaten and forcibly married to a girl he was accused of being in a four-year-long relationship with.
This marked another instance of 'Pakadwa Vivah' in Bihar, a phenomenon wherein unmarried men are forced to marry with a gun pointed at their heads. According to the police, 2024 witnessed the highest reported cases of forced weddings in the last 30 years.
Avnish Kumar, son of Sudhakar Rai and a resident of Rajaura in Bihar's Begursarai district was kidnapped by relatives of Gunjan, a woman from Lakhisarai district. Mr Kumar and Gunjan were allegedly in a four-year-long relationship. However, Mr Kumar, who secured a government teaching position recently and is posted at a middle school in Katihar district, allegedly refused to formalise the relationship into marriage.
