Eloping couple beaten to death and cremated

Police in eastern India have arrested one person and are searching for 14 others after a couple who had eloped together were beaten to death and cremated by relatives as a crowd looked on, police said.

Jairam Manjhi, 25, and 16-year-old girlfriend, Parvati Kumari, were stopped by Kumari’s relatives at a railway station in Gaya district as they tried to run away together on Wednesday morning, police said.

“They were brought back to the girl’s village under heavy protection, beaten to death, and then cremated together outside the village,” said Gaya’s sub-divisional police officer, Manoj Kumar Sudhanshu.