A 15-year-old boy committed suicide two hours after he was forced into marriage with his widow sister-in-law — 10 years older than him and mother of two — in south Bihar’s Gaya district in India.

Incidentally, the wedding was solemnised on Monday at Vinoba Nagar village in Paraiya police station area, about 15 km west of Gaya, defying a campaign by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar to end evils of underage marriage and dowry, reports the Hindustan Times.

Police said Mahadev Das, a Class 9 student of government high school, Paraiya, married Ruby Devi, 25, widow of his elder brother Santosh Das, under mounting pressure from his relatives and villagers.

A large number of villagers and relatives were present during the wedding rituals at a village temple and 10 people, four from the bridegroom side and six from the bride side, put their signatures on a draft prepared to validate the marriage.

Mahadev left for his home immediately after the rituals that concluded at 5:00pm and ended his life by hanging himself with a towel at 7:00pm, the police added.

He was apparently unhappy with the marriage to a woman ‘who used to take care of him like her own children’, Mahadev’s father Chandreshwar Das said.

Chandreshwar Das, a physically challenged man, said Rs 80,000 he had received as compensation after his eldest son’s death cost him the life of his another child.

‘My eldest son was working as an electrician with a private firm at Gaya. When died from electrocution in 2013, the company he worked for had given Rs 80,000 as compensation and the entire amount was deposited in my account. My daughter-in-law and her parents were mounting pressure on me to transfer the amount in the account of Ruby. I had already deposited Rs 27,000 in her account and assured her parents to transfer the remaining amount later. But they kept on exerting pressure on me to either give the money or marry my son with Ruby,’ a sobbing Chandreshwar Das said.

Meanwhile, Tekari subdivisional police officer (SDPO) Manish Kumar reached Vinoba Nagar Wednesday morning and admonished the Paraiya police over the child marriage.

Subsequently, the Paraiya police, that had registered a case of unnatural death on Tuesday, instituted a fresh FIR on Wednesday. Nine people, who attended the wedding ceremony, have been made named accused in the case.

The SDPO told HT that he was personally looking into the case. ‘FIR has now been lodged under various sections of the Child Marriage Act and also for inciting the boy into committing suicide,’ he said.