(Chouparan) Hazaribagh, April 20: An influential Rajput community outfit headquartered in Hazaribagh town and enjoying political clout took strong exception to widow marriage and pronounced social boycott on the family, which has responded with the threat of a mass suicide if the outfit did not revoke its diktat.

Intermediate student Ranju Devi had an arranged marriage with one Sudhir Kumar Singh of Hazaridhamna village in Chouparan in October 2009, who left for work in Andhra Pradesh 10 days after the wedding.

By December, he was back home, being diagnosed with cancer. He died in Ranchi’s Apollo Hospital in February. The teenaged Ranju tried to commit suicide by consuming poison, but was saved by her in-laws.

It was then that her father-in-law Preetam Singh took the unusual decision of arranging the marriage between the widowed Ranju and his youngest son Satish.

Despite stiff opposition from the Rajpur community, the marriage found favour with the immediate families of the bride and groom, and was solemnised on June 26, 2010.

Though Rajput neighbours passed snide comments on Preetam and Satish, they ignored the situation. Finally, the simmering resentment of the community snowballed into a khap judgment issued by 15 members of Kshatriya Mahasabha on April 19, after “three days of deliberation of the subject”.

On April 19, Preetam was produced before the “court” of the Mahasabha office-bearers such as Awadhesh Singh, Krishna Kumar Singh, Satyendra Narayan Singh and Prabhu Narayan Singh, where he was told that widow marriage was “not at all acceptable”. When Preetam said he had the consent of the couple and their relatives, the Mahasabha issued social boycott against his family.

“At present, people of my caste are not speaking to us. If this goes on, we will have to commit suicide. I pleaded to the members for leniency, but to no avail,” he said.

On the other hand, Mahasabha president Awadhesh Singh said that Rajput community never went against set norms. “Widow marriage in our caste was never accepted and never will be,” said Singh, a senior district Congress leader known to be close to sadar party legislator Saurabah Narayan Singh.

Barhi sub-divisional police officer Arun Kumar Sinha said they had not got any complaint, but would provide security to the couple if they approached the police. But Preetam said his family would not lodge an FIR.

“We don’t want to widen the rift,” he said.

Ranju, now 20, and preparing for her intermediate examinations next year, said she wanted to live with her husband Satish. “After my first husband died, my in-laws took care of me. When we don’t have any problems, why do others?” she asked.