Kolhapur police book three in child marriage case

KOLHAPUR: Three people have been booked by the Kolhapur police under various sections of Child Marriage Prevention Act, 2007.
The suspects include the youth, who had married the 13-year-old girl, his mother and the minor’s mother.
According to police, the marriage took place at Nandni village of Shirol tehsil in February this year when the girl’s age was only 12 years and nine months.Now, she is just over 13 years and was forcefully married to a 20-year-old youth.
Jagar, a watchdog forum formed, brought the incident to the notice of the authorities. A gramsevak, who is the child prevention officer of the village, after studying the case wrote to the police to register a case against the three, who are yet to be arrested.
Pramod Patil, convenor of the Jagar, said, “We brought the girl and mother to the welfare committee. The girl informed the committee members that she was forcefully married, while her mother said that she was not aware of the rule.”
He said, “We found the photographs of the girl with her husband and his family members celebrating the minor’s birthday based on which a case has been registered.”