Tamluk, March 16: A youth who was taunted about his “dark, thin and ugly” bride by friends on his wedding night was found hanging from a tree today in the East Midnapore village of his in-laws.

Police said the girl’s family told them that on Sunday — the day of the wedding — 24-year-old Abhinandan Paria’s friends and neighbours, all part of the barjatri, taunted him. “Didn’t you get any other girl? The bride is so dark, thin and ugly,” one of them reportedly told Abhinandan, who worked in a tailor’s shop in Tamluk.

“When we were questioning the girl’s family, some of them told us that some friends and neighbours of Abhinandan taunted him about the bride’s looks. They told the groom that the girl was dark, thin and ugly,” said Gopal Chandra Haldar, the circle inspector of Tamluk.

The girl said: “Around 4 this morning he told me that he wanted to go out to relieve himself.” Around 6am, neighbours told the girl’s father that Abhinandan was hanging from a tree. Haldar said the initial probe had revealed that the youth had committed suicide.

Abhinandan’s father Sudhir Paria, however, alleged the girl’s family had murdered his son.