Patna: In a shocking incident a woman has left her husband and four children to marry her father-in-law in a Bihar village, raising the hackles of a tradition-bound community.

Angry and shocked, the villagers have ostracised her and her father-in-law and ordered the couple to leave the village for breaking age-old social traditions.

Lalita Devi (25), left her husband Dilip Mandal (28), and their four minor children to marry her husband's father Harindar Mandal (45) in Dhamiapatti village in Madhubani, Bihar.

"It was a shock for most of the villagers when she openly declared that she was leaving her husband and
children to marry her father-in-law. Such a thing is unheard of in the conservative society of rural Bihar," said Ratnesh Kumar, a villager .

Illicit relationship

Harindar agreed to marry his daughter-in-law, with whom he had an illicit relationship for years in the absence of his son Dilip, who works in a factory in distant Gujarat.