Kavita (right) with her husband Rambabu at Kadamtoli village in Darbhanga on Tuesday. Picture by Mohan Mahato

Darbhanga, July 12: For a moment Darbhanga residents Kavita Kumari and her newly wed husband Rambabu Sah would have thought they were part of a Bollywood script.

The couple took the marital vows last night and while the bride and the groom were on their way home at 2.30pm today, four bike-borne criminals stopped their SUV and took away Kavita at gunpoint.

However, within three hours of the kidnapping, police recovered the bride from the residence of one Ramesh Kumar of Dalwa village under Keoti police station today. Kavita, 20, is a resident of Kadamtoli village of Dani panchayat under Keoti Block of Darbhanga.

At around 2.30pm, Kavita and Rambabu left Kadamtoli for Sakri Bhalpatti village under sadar police station. Soon after their departure from Kadamtoli in an SUV, four criminals between Nanaura and Dome village on a deserted bridge stopped the vehicle. They took Kavita at gunpoint on bike towards Darbhanga town.

Sources said the groom with a few people in the car was left in the lurch as the criminals took away the key of the vehicle. However, the groom and his friends reached Keoti police station somehow and registered an FIR. The cousin of the bride, Vikas Kumar claimed he knew one criminal who had abducted her sister and immediately the police conducted raids. Vikas was with her sister in the SUV and had recognised one of the criminals on the bike.

Senior superintendent of police, Vikas Vaibhav, told The Telegraph: “The bride was recovered from Ramesh’s residence in Dalwa. Kavita was crying when we reached and was unable to say anything. We would interrogate her once she comes back to normalcy. Arrested Ramesh was said to be the friend of one Kari Yadav — the lover of Kavita. The girl never resisted her marriage with Rambabu throughout the ceremony.”

Sources said the bride’s father Chhedi Sah and Kari used to work in Punjab where Kavita fell in love with Kari. She came to her native village from Punjab two months back after her marriage was fixed to Rambabu. “My wife was not willing to go with the criminals. We couldn’t do much because the criminals had revolver. We never expected such a thing would happen,” Rambabu said.