Arranged Marriage Rejected, Teenage Girl Marries Lover: You Won’t Believe What Happened

An arranged marriage resulted in something horrible when a teenage girl refused to go through with it. Darshana Narotam, 17, ran off to elope with her lover instead and unknowingly nearly sealed both of their fates.

Leicester, U.K., played host to the terrifying result of a jilted man’s anger when Darshana’s arranged husband Bharat Soma took the law into his own hands on January 19, attacking her and 22-year-old Prashant Govinde. On Leicester’s East Park Road, Soma allegedly attacked them from behind as they waited to cross the street, though he denies the charges of attempted murder.

Jurors heard how Soma allegedly walked up yelling “My wife, my wife,” while slashing Darshana’s throat and stabbing her new husband in the neck, and likewise attacking a 15-year-old who happened to be with them. BBC News differs by saying Darshana had been stabbed in the back. This was all done in front of a crowd of horrified shoppers.

BBC News – Leicester ‘honour stabbing victim refused arranged marriage’ http://t.co/9tXorDaj58

— Bas (@Hillchaser) October 15, 2014

An officer with a body camera found the couple lying in puddles of their own blood and offered help, attempting to slow the bleeding with bandages. This was when Darshana used what she could of her voice to recount what happened.

Soma, whose arranged marriage to her had been ruined, had been detained in the nearby police car when Darshana pointed him out as the one who’d done it.

“Yeah, I took a knife from him.”

“My mum and dad trying to force me to marry with that guy, but I haven’t married with him.”

Involved in the case as well are her mother Parvati Natu and her father Narotam Deugi, who had allegedly broken the law to ensure Darshana wasn’t given the chance to be with her secret boyfriend, whom she had eloped with.

Weeks ago, Darshana’s parents had been accused of false imprisonment and assault, locking her in her room to ensure her arranged marriage would be carried out. She had run away to marry Prashant instead.

Natu and Deugi also deny the charges against them.

The family originally came from Dui, a small island off the west coast of India, where it is apparently a form of dishonor to marry someone your parents did not choose for you.

Prosecutor Adrienne Lucking recounted what had apparently happened to stop Soma’s attack.

“Despite her injuries, she managed to [pry] the knife from Soma’s hand and throw it aside.

“She was screaming for help. Soma tried to kill them both because they had, in his eyes, [dishonored] him.”

Darshana and her chosen husband were taken to the hospital and have recovered with treatment. She barely managed to escape arranged marriage with her life.

[Image via Shutterstock]