PATNA: Alleged kidnappings for marriages and eloping in connection to love affairs continued even during the pandemic in Bihar.
State police of different districts have registered cases following written complaints from the concerned families.
As per available statistics provided by the Bihar police, 702 cases of kidnapping were allegedly done for marriages and have been registered in January-February of this year.
In February 2021, 371 such cases were registered in different parts of Bihar. While in 2020, when the state was placed under the Corona-induced lockdown, 1,111 such cases were registered.
As per official figures provided by the Bihar police, 3336 cases of kidnapping were registered in 2020 from January to December and out of which only 8 cases were declared false during the investigation. Amid the state-wide lockdown from April to August 2020, 81 cases were registered in April, followed by 138 in May, 305 in June, 301 in July and 286 in August.
Similarly, 4498 cases were registered in 2019 and out of which only 10 cases were declared false after investigation.
In 2018 also, 4317 cases of kidnapping for marriages were registered in Bihar’s different districts and 16 of them only were declared false after investigation.
“If the number of cases declared we see, it goes without saying that cases of kidnappings for marriages occurred frequently across the state”, said a senior police officer, preferring anonymity.
As per sources, the majority of cases of kidnapping for marriages were reported from districts like Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, Patna, Samastipur, Jehanabad, Lakhisarai, Jamui, and other remote districts, wherein still, the government employed grooms are picked up forcibly for marriages in the aftermath of refusal of their parents for a wedding on easy terms.
The second most surprising fact is that Bihar continued registering the cases of girls and boys fleeing away from their homes in connection with love affairs throughout the years included the period of lockdown in the state.
As per official figures, 2821 cases of fleeing away or eloping from homes in connection with love affairs were registered in 2020 included 873 during the lockdown days in Bihar.
In 2019 also, 4020 cases of boys and girls running away from their homes in connection with love affairs were registered in Bihar while 3025 cases of the same nature were reported in 2018 in the state.
In January and February of 2021, 576 cases of girls and boys running away from their homes in connection with love affairs have been reported to the police.