Bihar girl files police case accusing boyfriend of ‘rape’, convinces him to wed her

Riya Kumari filed a first information report at Ara’s mahila police station after her boyfriend of five years, Arjuna Dubey, allegedly started having second thoughts about marrying her.

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Arjuna and Riya echanging wedding vows in a temple at Ara in Bihar’s Bhojpur district.(HT photo)

A Bihar girl who walked out of her marriage on her wedding night in 2013, for the sake of her boyfriend, finally got to wed him four years later, but only after some not-so-gentle persuasion!

The wedding ceremony of Riya Kumari and Arjuna Dubey took place on Saturday at the Aaranya Devi temple at Ara town in Bhojpur district of south central Bihar, about 75 km west of the state capital, Patna. Close relations of both, the bride and the groom, attended the function.

But, it was not as if things were all hunky dory leading up to the wedding. Rather, it was only after the girl filed a police case, accusing her ‘boyfriend’ of past many years of ‘raping’ her, that he saw reason and finally agreed to wed her.

Police said Riya, 23, of Sundarpur Barja village under Bihiya police station of Bhojpur had an ‘affair’ going with Arjuna, 28, of Fuhan village under Barhara police station, located in the same district, for the past five years.

There came a twist in their story in 2013 when Riya’s parents got her wedded to a boy from Kolkata. However, the girl returned to her parent’s home on her wedding night, giving the excuse that she had to appear for her graduation examination.

As days went by and Riya refused to return to her husband, word got around about her ‘affair’ with Arjuna, causing her in-laws to ‘disown’ her. All this while, the girl kept meeting Arjuna, who, she claimed, had assured her he would marry her.

However, recently Arjuna, a jawan in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), went back on his word and refused to marry Riya. “Then, on April 14, Riya lodged an FIR at the Ara mahila police station, accusing Arjuna, of exploiting her sexually,” said Akhilesh Pandey, a former sarpanch known to the two families.

Pandey said fearing his arrest and possible loss of his SSB job because of the controversy, Arjuna changed his mind and agreed to wed Riya. “I am really glad that their wedding at an Ara temple on Saturday has given a happy ending to the story”, he added.

Mahila police station SHO Poonam Kumari said she had tried hard to effect a compromise between the boy and girl but Arjuna was adamant on not marrying Riya. “But when a case of rape was instituted by the girl, he saw reason and the wedding took place,” she told HT.