Timely intervention by activists from ChildLine India Foundation, helped stall an underage marriage.
Parents of the 14-year-old bride have been arrested by the Pimpri police.
The victim is a standard IX student of a PCMC-based school.
The director of the Childline, Pune accused that the cops dilly dallied in taking action against the parents and only after consistent pressure from them, they helped in stalling the marriage.
As per the information given by the police, the father of the bride, Shrimant Sakle and mother Vanita Sakle were arrested on Saturday night and the parents of 18-year-old groom, Gajanan Daudmami and Kastury Daudmani were booked.
The marriage was supposed to take place on February 24 in Bagalkot district in Karnataka where the groom lives and when the activists of Childline went to the bride’s home along with the police on Saturday, the marriage preparation was on in full swing.
“Two days ago, I met a teacher from the school in PCMC where the girl is studying and he told me that she had complained that her parents are arranging her wedding and she does not want to get married soon,” said Dr Anuradha Sahsrabuddhe, director of Childline, Pune.
She added that they then immediately got the address of the girl from the school records and also received the transfer certificate through which it was confirmed that she was a 14-year-old.
With the help of their local activists, they tried to persuade her parents.
“Since her parents were adamant, we approached the Pimpri police station, but the cops were not ready to take action and asked us to go to Tehsildar office. After a lot of persuasion, they finally were ready to take our complaint,” said Sahsrabuddhe.
“When we went to the house, we found that the marriage card which was in Kannad,” she said.
She added, “With the help of a Kannad activist, we came to know that the marriage was supposed to take place in Bagalkot in Karnataka on Monday,” she said.
However, the cops had a different story to tell altogether. Police sub inspector, PR Zanzurne, who is investigating the case, said that after ChildLine registered the case, they went to the house and stalled the marriage procedure and arrested her parents. The parents have been booked under the sections of 9, 11 of the Prevention of Child Marriage Act 2006.
kolhatkar.sandip@dnaindia.net
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