We have watched countless movies and TV serials where the brother of the hero marries his wife after the death of her husband, but such occurrences make sense only in movies and not in real life. Especially, if the brother of the husband is a minor as this can severely impact his mental state and drive him to take impulsive steps.
This is exactly what happened when a 15-year-old was forced to marry his 25-year-old widowed sister-in-law after her husband died from electrocution in South Bihar’s Gaya district. Two hours after the ceremony, the boy Mahadev hanged himself with a towel on 11th December, Monday.
According to Hindustan Times, the boy who is a student of 9th standard, married his sister-in-law, Ruby Devi who is the mother of two children under tremendous amounts of pressure from his family as well as villagers.
Shortly after the wedding rituals were completed at the village temple in the presence of 10 people, they were made to sign a draft to validate the marriage. The boy left for home immediately as he was not happy being married to a woman who took care of him like her own children.
The father of the boy revealed that her late husband was working as an electrician with a private firm at Gaya. After he died from electrocution, the company offered ₹80,000 as compensation and it was the money that was the reason behind the fiasco.
The amount was deposited in the father’s account but the bride’s family wanted their daughter to be the sole owner of the money and it was them who pressured him for the marriage. He said,
“My daughter-in-law and her parents were mounting pressure on me to transfer the amount to the account of Ruby.
I had already deposited Rs 27,000 in her account and assured her parents to transfer the remaining amount later. But they kept on exerting pressure on me to either give the money or marry my son with Ruby.”
The Paraiya police only registered a case of unnatural death until Tekari subdivisional police officer (SDPO) Manish Kumar reached the police station and berated the officers for the child marriage. Following this, the police lodged a fresh FIR under various sections of the Child Marriage Act. The nine people who were present during the wedding have been registered as the accused.
The greed for money cost a child his life and humanity just died a slow death. We hope the perpetrators of the injustice are brought to justice.