Patna: A groom in Bihar performed the last rites of his bride after she died hours after the wedding rituals. The incident took place in Munger district of eastern Bihar.
As per the scheduled programme, Ravish Kumar led a wedding procession to the house of the girl, Nisha Kumari, on May 8. The wedding was conducted and the celebrations continued till the following morning.
As the groom prepared to leave for his home, witnesses said the condition of the bride, who was reported to have COVID-19 symptoms, suddenly deteriorated.
She was rushed to the local government health centre in Tarapur but as no doctor was present there, she was taken to a private hospital in neighbouring Bhagalpur, some 45km away. Doctors refused to attend to her there, too. In the next two hours, the family members kept shuttling between the main government hospital and the government medical college in the town but did not get help.
Finding her condition critical, the family members hired an ambulance to take her to Patna for treatment, but she collapsed on the way. The groom performed the last rites of his wife at the local cremation centre.
“What can I say? Perhaps this is my destiny,” the groom told local media, before lighting the funeral pyre.
The girl’s mother Rita Devi said her daughter was alright before the wedding, but did not know what happened then.
“I never came across such an incident in my life when the groom had to perform the last rites of his wife soon after the wedding. I am shocked,” local village council chief Shashi Kumar Suman said.
COVID-19’s second wave has proved devastating for the state. In the past 42 days alone, the coronavirus has claimed the lives of 1,851 people in Bihar, while in the past one year since March 2020, it claimed 1,578 lives.
