"We Aren't Hanging You," Bihar Engineer, Married At Gunpoint, Was Told

Lodipur, Bihar: The 29-year-old engineer, who was forced to marry a woman at gunpoint in Bihar, has accused the administration of inaction and alleged that the cops were hand in glove with those who kidnapped him. The video clips of the 'pakadua vivah' (forced marriage) which recently went viral showed Vinod Kumar, a junior manager at Bokaro Steel Plant, dressed as a groom, being thrashed and forced to perform wedding rituals in Patna's Pandarak area. He begged for his release and cried for help, but the woman's family continued to convince him to cooperate.

Mr Kumar alleged that the Bihar police, instead of helping him and taking action against the accused, kept telling him to take the woman as his wife.

While describing his ordeal to NDTV, Vinod Kumar said that the accused locked him in a room and told him he was going to marry the woman. "Surender Yadav, the woman's brother, thrashed me and threatened to kill me if I didn't marry his sister. They dragged me to the mandap, and put a gun to my head. I felt so helpless. There was nothing I could do. I kept crying but they weren't bothered," Mr Kumar said.

Last month, Mr Kumar left from Bokaro to attend a friend's wedding in Patna. A man who was known to me offered to drop him to the venue. However, he took him to his home on the pretext of picking some stuff. The accused had reportedly made all the arrangements for the wedding. Mr Kumar was then told about what was going to happen and threatened him with a gun. He was taken to a room, forced to dress as a groom and beaten up when he refused to do as they said.

He was brought to the mandap and forced to participate in the rituals. His refusal to apply vermillion to the bride, invited explantions such as, "We are only performing your wedding, not hanging you."

After the wedding, Mr Kumar was taken back to the room where gun-wielding men stood guard. "There was no way I could have escaped from there," he said.

The next morning, Surender Yadav's brother-in-law came to the room and told him "jo hona tha so ho gaya (whatever had to happen has happened), so please accept the girl". "I used his cellphone to inform my family and friends," he said.

My family immediately informed the police but was told to go to Pandarak police station. "My brother filed a written complaint about my abduction, but the cops there told him that I wasn't kidnapped and that I was a married man now. Which means the cops already knew about everything beforehand. They had accepted bribe from the accused," Mr Kumar alleged.

The cops took Mr Kumar's family to where he was kept, but didn't let them meet him. I pleaded with them to take me to the police station, but they left after telling me to agree to the marriage.

The cops visited him thrice that day and every time told him to accept the woman saying ladki ki izzat ka sawaal hai (it's about a girl's honour).

"When my friends approached the media, I was taken to the police station late in the evening on the condition that the woman would go with me," he said.

Ever since the incident, his family has been getting threat calls asking him to accept the girl forcing them to seek police protection. "It's been a month and no FIR has been filed yet. I have written to all top police officers but no action has been taken against the accused. The administration isn't doing anything," he said.