Pranesh and Veena complete the wedding formalities at the state women’s rights commission office in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Dec. 27: The state women’s commission today played Cupid, albeit a menacing one, when they forced a teacher from Jharkhand to tie the knot with his former lover whom he had dumped after forcing her to carry out an abortion with the promise of marriage.

Abortion, legal tangles and travails of belonging to different castes — Veena Bhagat (26) braved them all. But she wasn’t prepared to be jilted by Pranesh (32), with whom she had been in a relationship for 10 years.

With the commission’s officials playing host and standing guard, Veena took saat phere (seven rounds) with Pranesh, who didn’t know of the marriage until this morning, with the aid of candles rather than fire. The couple’s parents and rela- tives stayed away from the ceremony.

Their relationship began when Pranesh started giving tuitions in history to Veena at her Mohammadganj home in Jharkhand’s Palamau district about a decade ago. The months rolled into years as their intimacy grew. Along the way, Veena became pregnant.

But she aborted the child after Pranesh insisted she do so with the promise that he would marry her later. Pranesh, however, ignored her after the abortion, which led Veena to lodge a complaint against him on May 5 this year.

In her complaint petition, Veena furnished all the details, including pictures, pertaining to her relationship with Pranesh. The commission swung into action, requesting the deputy commissioner, Palamau, to summon the boy on June 29.

The girl, who hails from a backward caste, belongs to south Bihar’s Arwal district, 50km from here, and is a teacher at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya at Deoghar in Jharkhand. The boy, an upper caste Rajput, is a farmer’s son from Palamau. He too is employed with a government high school at Mohammadganj.

The two fell in love when they were neighbours and the girl’s father Dev Pujan Bhagat was posted in Palamau district while working in the irrigation department. “I used to stay in Arwal but during vacations, I visited my father’s place. There I met Pranesh, who was our neighbour. He started teaching me my subject. We subsequently fell in love,” Veena said.

In 2007, Veena came to Patna to do her graduation at the Magadh Mahila College. Pranesh visited her in Patna also. Later the girl went to Chhattisgarh to pursue a BEd course and he followed her. She returned to Patna in 2009 and the two started living together at the Nayatola locality here, said women’s commission officials, referring to the petition and inquiry papers. Veena conceived in November 2010 but aborted the child at Pranesh’s insistence.

The commission, pursuing Veena’s complaints, summoned the boy. “However, after appearing on the first date, he failed to turn up on four subsequent dates. But in the first meeting he had accepted that he was in a relation with the girl who carried his baby, which she aborted later. He made all his confessions in writing but did not turn up on the subsequent dates,” said commission chairperson Kahkashan Parveen.

The commission had put in place the plan to formalise the marriage today. Parveen said: “Following pressure from the Palamau deputy commissioner, the boy appeared before the commission today. Equipped with evidence and other legal requirements, we had decided to formalize the wedding. I had already asked the girl to bring the wedding dress and other necessary stuff.”

The boy was, however, not aware that he would be married. He was not even ready for his wedding and pleaded for “some more time” from the commission. Parveen, however, refused to entertain his plea, asserting: “How much time do you need? I have already given you enough time and today you have no option other than taking a decision. Otherwise, I will call the senior SP, Patna, to charge you with a case of defrauding the girl.”

The fear of law, probably, softened the boy who got ready to marry Veena. Parveen revealed that the boy’s parents had already fixed his marriage to another girl. “My family was not ready on my marrying Veena for they were opposed to a love marriage. But I have no choice other than marrying her today.”

Parveen said the commission would keep a watch on the couple to ensure the success of their marriage and also Veena’s security. In the absence of relatives on both sides, commission and government staff acted as hosts to the wedding.