Marriage made in heaven, solemnised in police station
By IANSTuesday, March 9, 2010
LUCKNOW - The wedding card of this couple who eloped might read something like this — Satish Kumar weds Maya Pasi. You are cordially invited to attend the marriage at a police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district!
Satish, 24, and Maya, 21 - both residents of Achalganj town in Unnao, some 65 km from Lucknow - who had run away from home ended up tying the knot, thanks to policemen who were moved by their plight.
“The Achalganj police station literally transformed into a wedding venue. We even set up a ‘mandap’ in the police station and decorated it with flowers and called a priest from a nearby town, who solemnised the wedding yesterday (Wednesday) evening,” police inspector Shreedhar Pathak told reporters Thursday in Unnao.
“When locals came to know about the marriage, they too turned up to bless the couple and participated in the ceremonial function along with police. We cannot put into words what we feel after helping the couple get married,” added Pathak, who along with other policemen made the wedding arrangements at the police station.
The couple were in love for the past two years and eloped two days ago after which the girl’s father filed a complaint with the police.
Acting on the compliant, the police carried out a search operation and nabbed the couple early Wednesday from the outskirts of the town.
Thereafter, police handed over the girl to her father, while they detained Satish for questioning. However, later in the afternoon the girl turned up before police and pleaded with them to let her marry Satish.
“We were moved by the tears of the girl…When we learnt that the consenting couple were adults and their marriage was opposed by their family members, we decided to get the couple married,” said Omkar Triptahi, another police official.
After conducting the marriage, the police officials called the parents of the couple and tried to explain to them the legal aspects of the situation and counselled them to accept the couple.
After counselling, both families accepted the couple.
