Young Lovers Die By Suicide After Families Oppose Relationship; Bodies Hanging From Tree

A pair of lovers died by suicide in their village in the Indian state of Bihar over the weekend after their families opposed their relationship, police said.

Krishna Kumar, 22, and Neetu Kumari, 18, hanged themselves from a tree using scarves minutes after they secretly conducted their own marriage ritual under the cover of darkness Saturday, Gulf News reported.

The two, both residents of Masaurhi block in Patna district, had been in love for a year and wanted to get married even though they belonged to different castes, according to the report.

However, Kumar and Kumari had failed to get the approval of their respective families to get married, local police official Ranjit Kumar Rajak said.

Kumar was married to another girl in January, while Kumari's family had set her up to marry another man this May.

Despite this, the two reportedly continued meeting each other, and they later decided to end their lives together, the report said.

The two left their homes Saturday night and met up at a secret location in the outskirts of the village to get married.

"[Kumar] filled vermillion in the parting of the girl's hair as a mark of their marriage," Rajak said.

The two then hanged themselves from a mango tree at Lala Bigha village, police said. Their bodies were discovered Sunday morning, The Times of India reported.

Locals later reported the discovery to police, who sent the bodies of the two deceased for autopsy, according to the outlet.

No suicide note was found. A police investigation into the case is ongoing.

In a similar incident, a 25-year-old man in the state of Maharashtra hanged himself after he was allegedly mentally tortured by his girlfriend to get married.

Ramesh Ravindra More was found dead on Feb. 26 at an area in Nashik City that was under the jurisdiction of Adgaon police. A postmortem examination determined his cause of death to be hanging.

More, who was originally from the city of Jalgaon, had an affair with a 45-year-old mother of four and moved to the town of Ozar to stay at her home.

However, the woman allegedly started to mentally torture More into getting married after she suspected that the latter would leave and marry another woman.

More later hanged himself over the demands. The woman, with the help of her son and one of his friends, then allegedly dumped More's body on an open plot as they allegedly wanted to destroy evidence and make the death look like the result of a road accident.

Authorities arrested the three accused. All three were given three-day police custody.

If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours, every day.