Odisha: Parents Declare Living Daughter Dead, Perform Her Last Rites After She Married Against Their Wishes – News18

In another shocking incident, family members of a 20-year-old girl in Odisha’s Kendrapara district declared their living daughter dead and performed her last rites on Thursday after she married against their wishes.

Dipanjali Mallick, the daughter of Muna Mallick of Demal village under Aul police station, married her boyfriend Srivastav Mallick (23) in a temple on August 28.

Despite their objection, the couple married at Laxmibarah Temple in Aul last Monday. The marriage was solemnized in the presence of the groom’s family members.

Infuriated with the marriage, the girl’s parents publicly declared her dead and put up pictures in her memory that put a garland on it. Even members of extended family participated in the rituals including ‘pind daan’.

“My parents, uncle, and other family members have performed my last rites. Even though my parents are with me, my uncles have persuaded them to do so,” said the newly-wed girl.

When asked, Srivastav Mallick’s father Anam Mallick said, “my son and she exchanged garlands at Laxmibarah temple in the presence of our family members. The next day, they performed the last rites of my daughter-in-law, saying they lost their daughter to a crocodile attack.”

The father of the groom supported the marriage and said that his son had not done anything wrong and that both the bride and the groom were adults.

“There is nothing wrong in a girl eloping to get married according to her choice after she has attained the age of 18 years. The family members of the girl have no right to perform her last rites. They humiliated and violated her human rights by performing her obsequies,”Amarbara Biswal, a human rights activist of Kendrapara told news agency PTI.