A 13-year-old girl who lived with her family in Bharat Nagar, Delhi, left home after she fought with her father. The girl was rescued nearly a month after being trafficked. She was forced to marry a 40-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh. She boarded a train to Meerut and to Meerut but two men lured her with false promises and took her to Shamli. There, she was forced and illegally married to a 40-year-old man on July 24. They got a fake Aadhar Card showing her age as 19. The two men were paid Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 for getting a young woman to marry the 40-year-old man. Four days after getting married, she was allegedly sexually assaulted by the man.
After this, she tried to connect with her grandmother. When she attempted to call, the police traced her location to Shamli and found her in a house. A police official told The Times Of India, “While we were searching for the girl, her family informed us that they had received a missed call from an unknown number. When they called back, a woman answered and said her daughter-in-law might have made the call, then abruptly disconnected it.”
When police investigated this case, it was revealed that she had left home alone. She boarded a bus and went to the railway station, and then boarded a train to Meerut. At the station, she met a 20-year-old man from Hapur and his 55-year-old associate from Meerut. The duo trapped her and arranged the illegal marriage.
Police had a missing person’s complaint on July 22. Efforts to trace her failed at the start because the family shared the incorrect number, and later, when the police got the correct number, they traced the location.
Police have arrested two men who trafficked her, and the man who married her. They are charged with multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including kidnapping, human trafficking, exploitation, and forgery. Provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)Act have been invoked in this case.
DCP (northwest) Bhisham Singh said that the case is being investigated by a team from Bharat Nagar police station. The police are also investigating whether any other girls from a vulnerable background have been similarly trafficked and married off.