Bihar: Girl ‘married’ to gangster at gunpoint returns home

Police launched a hunt for the accused, 40-year-old Pappu Singh, and his men after a photograph of the forced nuptial ceremony went viral on the social media.

A 15-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted and forced to marry a gangster at gunpoint in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district last month has finally returned home.

The photograph of the forced ‘marriage’ that went viral on the social media.(HT)

A photograph that showed the gangster, 40-year-old Pappu Singh, applying vermillion on the girl’s forehead while armed men held her at gunpoint went viral on the social media a few days ago. Police reacted by launching a manhunt that sent Singh and his men into a tizzy. The harried gangster brought the girl to his native village on Monday, after which his actual wife – whose name remains undisclosed – handed her to the police.

HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the photograph.

The alleged abduction occurred on April 18, while the girl – a resident of Purnea – was visiting her maternal uncle’s family in Sanhoula village. The gangster’s accomplices arrived the same day, and proclaimed that Singh had chosen her for his bride. “They took my daughter to a temple where the gangster forced her to participate in all the rituals of a Hindu marriage. His men had their weapons trained on her through it all,” the father said in an FIR lodged with the police the same evening.

“We have formed a special team to arrest the abductors,” said Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police Ashish Bharti, adding that Singh is the prime accused in several cases of murder, dacoity and extortion.

Bharti said the girl was subjected to a medical examination, after which her statement was recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC before the judicial magistrate.