Eloped couple face wrath of panchayat

A young couple in Rajasthan - Pinky and Yash - is on the run and their crime is that they married against their communities' wishes. The community panchayat has now announced a Rs 1 lakh reward for anyone who brings them back - dead or alive.

The police have so far refused to intervene in the matter and for the young couple it's a daily search for a safe refuge.

The couple's only crime is that they married in the same gotra or within their clan, which is traditionally not accepted. Since then their caste panchayat is after them.

"They have said we will give 1 lakh rupees to anyone who brings them dead or alive and if they are brought alive we will burn them in front of the whole village," said Pinky, eloped girl.

Both belong to Kumher in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district, they say so strong is the sway of the caste panchayat that even the police is helpless.

"My father has approached the SP. But the local police in Kumher is hand in glove with the Panchayat," said Yash Faujdar, eloped man.

The couple's parents are willing to accept them but they don't dare defy the panchayat.

"These panchayat's are illegal; according to the Hindu marriage act this marriage is legal. What's astonishing is the police inaction," said Kavita Srivastava , Human Righst Activist, PUCL.

Pinky and Yash, a young couple in love but tragically on the run from their community against the diktats of a caste panchayat whose rulings still carry more weight than the law does in rural Rajasthan.