Patna: A man in Bihar has returned the dowry he had taken from the family of his son’s bride, apparently inspired by the anti-dowry campaign launched by the state government headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

This is the first incident of any villager retuning dowry to the bride’s parents in Bihar.

Hrindra Singh, a resident of Ara town in central Bihar’s Bhojpur district, returned Rs 400,000 (Dh22,580) dowry early this week saying he hugely supports the state government’s campaign for dowry-less marriages in the society.

Singh, who retired as a school principal, had taken the dowry in February this year for solemnisation of marriage of his younger son Prem Ranjan Singh who runs his business. The bride’s family had unhesitatingly given the money once the marriage was finalised. The wedding is scheduled to be solemnised in December this year.

“We got frightened when one of the relatives of the would-be groom reached our home to return the money. We thought they were returning the money as they have cancelled the marriage but what he said after returning the money made all of us proud. We are proud that my sister is being married into a family with such high moral values,” bride’s brother Rohit Singh told media Wednesday.

The development comes after the state government launched a vigorous campaign against dowry on October 2 to coincide with the 148th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and also asked people not to attend the wedding where dowry has been taken. The government also launched a campaign against child marriages, which are much prevalent in the society.

“The dream of development will always remain unfulfilled until these two social evils are eradicated from the society,” was how the chief minister said while launching the campaign.

An official report said around 25,000 women were either killed or committed suicide due to dowry harassment by their in-laws between 2012 and 2014 with Uttar Pradesh (7,048 deaths) reporting the highest number of death closely followed by Bihar (3,830 deaths). This information was provided to the Lok Sabha by federal minister Maneka Gandhi.

Apart from this, around 30,000 cases of dowry were registered during the same period under Dowry Prohibition Act.