School teacher kidnapped, married at gunpoint

Gautam Kumar had recently cleared the Bihar Public Service Commission exam to become a teacher. On Wednesday, three to four people arrived at his school and forcibly took him away. Within 24 hours, he was forced to marry the daughter of one of the kidnappers at gunpoint.

Mr Kumar's whirlwind journey from being a bachelor to entering an unplanned wedlock is the latest addition to Bihar's history of 'Pakadwa Vivah' or groom kidnapping, a phenomenon wherein unmarried men are forced to marry with a gun pointed at their heads.

According to the police, the kidnapping took place in Bihar's Vaishali district where Mr Kumar is a newly appointed teacher at Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya in Patepur's Repura. Following the incident, Mr Kumar's family protested by blocking a road on Wednesday night before the police initiated a search operation to locate the missing teacher.