By IANS,
Lucknow : Even an age gap of almost 36 years could not come between their love. Twenty one-year-old Abhimanyu Kumar married 57-year-old Suneeta Devi, who is a grandmother, in Uttar Pradesh, officials said Thursday.
The wedding took place Wednesday in Preetamnagar town in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad district, about 250-km from Lucknow.
According to locals, Kumar and Devi were having an affair for the past one year. After Devi lost her husband three years ago, her in-laws in Bareilly forced her to leave the house. She then moved to Preetamnagar in search of work.
Devi has two daughters who are 16 and 25. Her elder daughter is married and has two sons.
“After coming to Preetamnagar, Devi took a room in Kumar’s house on rent. Gradually, Kumar and Devi started sharing their life experiences with each other and became closer,” Kumar’s neighbour Shri Kishun told reporters.
“It was just three days ago when Kumar said he would marry Devi and asked us to attend his wedding ceremony that was performed at a park in our locality,” he said.
While Kumar is a taxi-driver, Devi earns a livelihood by performing menial jobs in the homes of her neighbours.
“Though the marriage lacked pomp and show, Kumar made satisfactory catering arrangements. Nearly 60-70 guests attended the marriage,” said Devmani Tripathi, who runs a mobile phones repair shop in the locality.
While Devi did not face any kind of opposition from her daughters, Kumar’s parents were against the marriage. They even threatened to disown him, but even that did not deter him from accepting Devi as his wife.
Kumar’s family members also registered a complaint with the police in order to stop their marriage by alleging that Kumar was not an adult.
“Acting on the compliant, we visited the marriage venue to verify whether Kumar was an adult or not. From his high school certificate, we learned that he was 21 years old,” police inspector Jaspal Singh told reporters.
“As both are adults, their marriage cannot be challenged legally,” he said.