The newly married couple at Guapur. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, March 10: In a real life incident that could well inspire a Bollywood potboiler, a village girl was saved from getting hitched for life to a mentally unstable person amidst high drama in the marriage mandap at Guapur village on the city outskirts on Monday.

Led by the sarpanch of the village, the villagers not only rescued the 22-year-old, Gitanjali, from the marriage venue as her would be husband went bonkers during the ceremony, but they also arranged another groom for her within 24 hours and got her married.

According to the Guapur sarpanch, Pradymnu Kumar Senapati, who played Good Samaritan to the girl, Gitanjali’s marriage had been arranged with Siba Prasad Pal of Palasahi village. “The marriage ceremony was in its last phase when the groom suddenly went wild and began abusing everyone. He did not even spare the relatives of the bride. We found out that Pal was insane,” said Senapati.

The villagers also came to know that Pal had been married before and also served a jail term.

“As Geetanjali belonged to a poor family, her family had arranged the marriage without verifying the groom’s antecedents. However, after what happened during the marriage ceremony, we decided not to let her go with Pal,” added Senapati.

The grief-stricken villagers put an immediate end to the marriage ceremony and brought the girl and her brother, both of whom had fainted temporarily following the groom’s insane behaviour in the marriage mandap, back home. An immediate search was launched for another groom for Geetanjali.

“Our boys fanned out to all the villages of the panchayat and finally succeeded in locating a young boy worthy of Geetanjali. It took some persuasion to make Susanta Dey from Pubagada village agree to marry the girl,” said the sarpanch, adding that local youths came forward to donate money for the marriage.

“We managed to arrange Rs 28,000 of which Rs 20,000 was given as dowry and the rest was spent on the ceremony which was took place the nest day at the same venue, the village temple. On my part, I have made a commitment to arrange a house for the newly-wed under the Indira Awas Yojana,” Senapati said.

All set to begin a new phase of life, Gitanjali told The Telegraph over phone: “My life has been saved. I cannot forget the support of the villagers. My family will remain indebted to them forever.”

Married at a short notice, Susanta, too, appeared to be happy. “I am happy to have saved the life of a girl. I will try to make her happy,” he said.