Lockdown in India: Man marries girlfriend as wife gets stuck at parents’ home

News report

PATNA: A man in Bihar married his girlfriend after his wife got stuck at her parents’ house due to the lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19, foreign media reported on Sunday. The lockdown that was enforced on March 24 has now been extended to May 3. Police said Dheeraj Kumar, a resident of Paliganj block in Patna district, is married to Gudia Devi and they have a child together.

Recently, his wife visited her parents’ home in the Jehanabad district, some 60km south of Patna, but the lockdown was enforced on the day she was to return. The lockdown led to the immediate suspension of all transport services. Kumar called up his wife and asked her to return home soon but she said she was helpless due to the lack of transport services. In a fit of rage, he hurriedly married his girlfriend who lived in the neighbourhood and brought her home.

Soon after finding out about this, Kumar’s first wife went to the police station with her parents and registered a case against her husband. “We received the complaint on Friday and have arrested the man. He has been jailed,” a local police official Ashok Kumar said over the phone on Saturday.