Bihar Woman abandons husband, kids to marry father-in-law

Patna, Nov 17 (IANS) A woman has left her husband and four children from him to marry her father-in-law in a Bihar village, raising the hackles of a tradition-bound community.

Angry and shocked, the villagers have ostracised her and her father-in-law and ordered the ciouple to leave the village as early as posiible for breaking age-old social traditions.

Lalita Devi, 25, left her husband Dilip Mandal, 28, and their four minor children Saturday to marry her father-in-law Harindar Mandal in Dhamiapatti village in Madhubani district, 129 km from Patna.

"It was a great shock for most of the villagers when she openly declared she was leaving her husband and children to marry her father-in-law, a thing unheard of in the conservative society in rural Bihar," Ratnesh Kumar, a villager, said.

Harindar Mandal, 45, agreed to marry his daughter-in-law, with whom he had an illicit relationship for years in the absence of his son Dilip, who works in a factory in distant Gujarat.

Another villager, Shayam Mandal said that nearly two weeks ago, Dilip Mandal returned to village to spend some time with his family.

"One day he caught his wife and his father in an objectionable position, which led to a heated exchange and a clash between them," he said.

The dispute took a new twist when Lalita told some villagers, who tried to intervene, that she was not ready to live with her husband and had decided to marry her father-in-law.

A group of shocked village elders tried to reason with her, but Lalita Devi refused to rethink her decision to abandon her husband and marry his father instead.

Later at a meeting of the village council, villagers expressed serious concern over the incident and ordered both Lalita Devi and Harindar Mandal to leave village without delay.