Hyderabad police on Wednesday rescued a 15-year-old girl, who was being forcibly married to a 38-year-old man at a temple.
The girl and her family were staying as tenants at the accused’s house. The parents agreed to marry off their daughter after they reportedly failed to pay the rent for several months.
The victim recently wrote her Class X exams and passed with good marks. She has now been moved to a child rescue home.
“I was being forced to marry this man. He can’t move or walk and is 38 years old. We were threatened that we would not be allowed to stay here. I want to study further and not marry,” news18.com quoted the girl as saying.
Meanwhile, the girl’s parents and the groom, Ramesh Gupta have been taken into police custody.
Ramesh, according to police, cannot walk and stands with difficulty. He manages a mechanic shop set up for him by his parents.
“They wanted someone to look after their son and demanded that either the girl be married to their son or the family pay the money they owed,” police inspector P. Jagadeeshwar of Mailardevpally police station told NDTV.
The girl’s parents are migrant labourers from Odisha, when they failed to pay their rent, Chennayya Gupta (Ramesh Gupta’s father) insisted they marry their daughter to his son.
“We have three kids. He said he will take care of our girl and her education. Earlier also he financially helped our family. We also did not have money to take care of her future education” The girl’s mother told news18.com.
A case under the Prevention of Child Marriage Act has been registered against the groom, his father Chennayya Gupta and mother Palli Ramachandramma.
