Rally to save marriage

Dhangadhi, March 27:

The Marwadi Sewa Samittee today staged a protest rally in Dhangadhi against attempts by the family members of Vijay Awasthi, 22, now married for four months, to separate him from his better half, 18-year-old Poonam Hisariya.

Mostly women took part in the rally. The women were rallying to keep the couple together.

They later gheraoed the District Administration Office, Kailali. Poonam, daughter of Murasi Lal Hisariya, a Marwadi, of Dhangadhi and Vijay, son of Jagadish Awasthi, a ration contractor of the police, tied their knots on December 12, 2005.

When their love marriage was not accepted by the bridegroom’s family, the couple had escaped to Surat, India. The couple was having hard time surviving in the new setting.

A contractor of the police, the bridegroom’s father, Jagadish, has continued to harass Poonam’s father Murari Lal.

According to Poonam, Vijay has now been kidnapped by his relatives. The Marwadi community staged the rally in Dhangadhi sympathising with Poonam.

The enraged mass had dispersed from the DAO only after chief district officer Ram Prasad Sharma assured them of justice. Poonam’s family said in a press statement today that she is pregnant. “My husband will never desert me,” Poonam said. She alleged her husband’s family of holding him captive in some Indian city.

“We are ready to fight even the police and the local administration if culprits are not penalised,” feminists said at the press meet.