Depressed over their postponed marriage due to the ongoing lockdown, a young couple committed suicide by consuming pesticides in an agricultural field, in India, on May 8.
While there are several positive stories surfacing from the country about couples getting married while respecting the lockdown restrictions, a shocking incident has emerged from Telangana.
The bodies of Pendur Ganesh, aged 22 and 20-year-old Soyam Seethabai were found in a field near where they lived.
According to police, Ganesh, a farmer and a girl from the same village were in love with each other for a couple of years. Their engagement took place a few months’ ago and the marriage was scheduled for last month.
However, both the families decided to postpone the marriage due to the lockdown. However, the duo was upset over this.
As the lockdown in Telangana was recently extended, the couple was further depressed due to the uncertainty over their marriage, according to CNN-News18, an Indian English-language news television channel.
"Both the families say they took the extreme step due to postponement of the wedding. Their bodies were found in a field. We have shifted them to government hospital in Utnoor for autopsy," said a local police inspector was quoted as saying.
However, the cause of death was not immediately declared for the two. The police official said a case of death under suspicious circumstances was registered and an investigation was launched, India news outlets reported.
Weddings across India get postponed
The lockdown, which began in Telangana on March 22, has reportedly resulted in the postponement of thousands of weddings.
The Indian government has put restrictions on the number of people who can attend weddings and funerals to ensure there is no crowding and that social distancing is maintained.
Social media users shared instances of Indian couples who postponed their weddings to curb the spread of coronavirus and appreciated their decision.
Tweep @sqlmal wrote: "Dealing with a young niece whose wedding is postponed since India is on lockdown. She understands but was not nice to see her in tears, it was her special day. We will get through this."
Twitter user @AJD posted: "Majority have been cancelled/postponed. So glad. I was also supposed to fly out to India to DJ there, I’m glad that fell flat on its head too. One wedding did go ahead yesterday though, actually two. One was a legit big indian bash and the other they had their reception at home."
