Should the husband (now brother) be looking for a match for his wife?

The strange love story that gripped Meerut a fortnight ago has taken a sadder turn. Recall the young husband who asked his bride to tie him a rakhi, making him her brother, so she could reunite with her lover. Now the lover has dumped her.

The girl, Aarti, had married Nitesh, but her heart belonged to Vinit, who was reportedly her first husband, the two having married earlier in a secret ceremony. In a gesture that made headlines across Uttar Pradesh, Nitesh agreed to accept a rakhi from Aarti, dissolving the marriage into a sibling bond so she could go to Vinit.

That plan has collapsed. Vinit is now avoiding contact with Aarti, telling police counsellors who tried to reach him that there was a threat to his life.

On Sunday, the district administration summoned Aarti and Nitesh to the police counselling centre. The counsellors suggested the couple live together; both declined, saying they had already accepted each other as brother and sister. On persuasion from her parents, Aarti agreed to return to them under a written agreement drawn up at the counselling centre.

Meerut superintendent of police (city) Prabal Pratap Singh said Vinit had backed out of accepting Aarti "for some reason," and added a warning for her family: her father knows he could face police action if she is mistreated.

The question the original headline posed (whether the husband-turned-brother should now find his wife a match) answers itself in the wreckage: the man who freed her cannot re-tie what the rakhi undid, and the man she chose has walked away.

Based on reporting by the Times of India.