Bengaluru:
A teen roughly carried off by a man, her cries and shrieks carrying over the barren fields. While another man and woman follow, they make no attempt to come to her aid. This video from Karnataka’s Hosur is now being widely circulated on social media and has led to the arrest of all four adults.
The girl is a 14-year-old girl from Thimmathur, a small village in the Thottamanju mountain area near Tamil Nadu’s Hosur. After studying till Class 7 in a local school, she was staying at home – as happens so often in the country’s rural pockets.
But on March 3, her family married her off Madesh, a 29-year-old labourer from the mountain village of Karnataka’s Kalikuttai. Her protests went unheard.
The wedding took place in Bengaluru.
After returning to her hometown of Thimmathur, the girl expressed dissatisfaction with the marriage again and refused to go to her in-laws’ house. She also voiced her protests to her parents and relatives.
But her protests fell on deaf ears again. Madesh and his elder brother Mallesh, 38, forcibly carried off the girl from a relative’s house to Kalikuttai village.
Visuals of what amounts to a kidnapping was recorded on cellphone by onlookers and uploaded on social media, where it went viral.
The All-Women Police station in Denkanikottai is now investigating the matter. A formal complaint has been filed by the girl’s grandmother.
On Wednesday, the police arrested Madesh, his brother Mallesh, and the girl’s mother Nagamma. Earlier today, two more arrests were made – the girl’s father and Mallesh’ wife.
Cases have been filed against all of them under various sections pf POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) and Child marriage Act. All of them face two years in jail and a find that may extend to Rs 1 lakh.
The girl is now living with her grandparents.
Marriage of a woman under the age is 18 is illegal and under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, and is considered null.
The act also provides punishments for various offences for allowing or conducting child marriages between minors or marrying minors with adults. Despite this, child marriage is still widespread across the nation, especially in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh .
As per data available in 2023- 2024, the authorities had received information about 180 child marriages in Karnataka; 105 such marriages were prevented and in the remaining 75 instances, police cases were registered.
