Usually, a husband and wife know one another intimately before marriage, and soon (hopefully very soon) thereafter, the marriage is consummated. In India recently, however, a young couple are rather strange people, through no fault of the wife.

Usually, the couple know the gender of the spouse, but not in this short-term marriage. In August, 2011 Minati Khatua, 26, married her loving fiancé, Sitakant Routray , in Orissa, India.

By Indian tradition, the husband receives a dowry from the wife’s family. Sitakat received a huge dowry: a gold watch, $575 cash, an Indica car, among other possessions. All seemed quite normal, and Routray was well-liked by her family.

After a week of trying to consummate the marriage, Khatua was becoming suspicious. Especially, since Rautay expressed to her that she couldn’t touch him at all due to religious reasons. She opened the bathroom door while he was bathing, and discovered her husband was not a “he”, but a “she”.

Her loving husband abruptly got dressed, grabbed their car keys, and raced off in his newly acquired jeep, thanks to a loan under Kautua’s signature. Police are still searching for the former husband, and Kautua is forlorn and heart-broken.