A nikah solemnised on Tuesday ended in talaq on Wednesday, with the bride deciding to call off the wedding after the groom demanded a new bike in addition to the one gifted to him by her parents.

The incident, which takes the dowry system head-on and establishes a woman's right to choose her life partner irrespective of which community she belongs to, happened at Chandwe village in Pithoria block of Ranchi, 30km from the state capital.

Not only was the greedy groom humiliated in public, the local chapter of religious adjudicator Anjuman-e-Islahul Muslimeen has directed his family to reimburse the expenses of the wedding. No FIR has been lodged.

Rubana Perween, the daughter of small-time tea vendor Md Basruddin Ansari, was raised like any other girl in an orthodox Muslim society. She and studied till intermediate.

As she turned 21, her marriage was fixed to Md Muntaz Ansari (27), son of Sindri trader Ayub Ansari. The wedding function took place around 9.30pm on Tuesday and ruksati was scheduled for 8am on Wednesday. But, just before the ceremonial departure, Muntaz said he wouldn't take Rubana with him unless he was given a high-end sports bike.

According to a relative, the auto driver groom was gifted a Passion Pro bike by the bride's family, which he himself selected from a Ranchi showroom a few days before the wedding. However, his friends taunted him for settling for an average two-wheeler. Feeling short-changed, Muntaz demanded a Pulsar, a sports bike with a more powerful engine and priced at least Rs 20,000 higher.

"For two hours, the girl's family pleaded with the groom. Even the village sarpanch tried to intervene, but all in vain. That is when Rubana mustered courage and demanded a khula," the relative said.

Among Muslims, khula is a process where the bride can call off her wedding with approval from religious heads. In Rubana's case, priests had no other option than to approve a khula, said a source, calling it unprecedented in the village.

What followed next was shaming of the groom. Muntaz was made to wear a garland of shoes and paraded through Chandwe, a village of 600 people. Unconfirmed reports claimed his head was partially tonsured too. The religious arbiter made the groom's family sign an undertaking to return more than Rs 6 lakh that the bride's kin spent on the wedding.

Pithoria OC Chunua Oraon confirmed that a wedding had ended in a divorce within 12 hours. Sources said a dowry FIR wasn't lodged because the families were related.