Family faces boycott, threatens suicide

A love marriage by a girl with member of a different community proved costly for her family members as they were ‘ostracized’ by a panchayat.

Facing ‘social boycott’ for the past several months on the orders of the panchayat, a family in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnore district, about 450 kilometres from here, threatened to commit mass suicide if justice was not done to it.

The family lodged a report with the police on Sunday narrating its woes and demanded action against the members of the panchayat, police sources said.

In the complaint, the family members have alleged that they had been facing ‘complete boycott’ and no one in the village was allowed to meet them or speak to them.

“No one visits us nor are we allowed to visit others,” said a family member.
He said one of the women in the family had died a few days back but none from the village came to offer condolences nor did any one attend the ‘shradh’ (cremation).

The only fault of the ‘ostracized’ family was that one of its girls had married a youth from a different community a few months back. The panchayat took a strong view of the marriage and declared that the family would be socially boycotted.

“Our life has become hell. We cannot live like that for long,” said a family member in his complaint to the police. He has demanded stern action against the members of the panchayat, who had pronounced the diktat.

“We all will commit self-immolation if justice was not done to us,” he added.
The police said they had received such a complaint and were looking into it.
“We will investigate the matter and take stern action if the allegations are found to be correct,” said the police officials.
DH News Service