14-Yr-Old Girl In Uttarakhand's Chamoli 'Forced' To Marry Older Man For Money, District Police Begin Probing Case

The Chamoli revenue officials had registered the case on late Tuesday evening against the minor girl's father and her in-laws under different sections of the Juvenile Justice Act, POCSO Act and the IPC.

Representative Image

Gopeshwar: Amid an outcry over an alleged forcible marriage of a 14-year-old girl with a man more than double her age for money in the remote hill district Chamoli, the Uttarakhand police on Wednesday took up the probe into the incident.

The district police began the probe after the case registered by the district's revenue officials, armed with some police powers in remote hill districts of the state for some special purposes, was handed over to it.

The Chamoli revenue officials had registered the case on late Tuesday evening against the minor girl's father and her in-laws under different sections of the Juvenile Justice Act, POCSO Act and the IPC.

The accused were booked for allegedly thrashing the girl and forcing her into the marriage which came to light through social media three months after it took place.

After a preliminary investigation into the case, the probe into it was handed over to the police on Wednesday, Pokhri SDM Vaibhav Kumar Gupta told PTI.

Considering the sensitivity of the matter and in the light of the Uttarakhand High Court's past orders in such matters, the Chamoli police have been asked to probe the incident and bring the guilty to book, he added.

The incident which had happened in a remote village of the Chamoli district came to light on Monday when the girl, a class 8 student, recounted her ordeal to her teacher who made a video to tell her story to others and lodged an FIR.

Quoting the student, the teacher said the girl was married off forcibly for money during the lockdown in January by her father to a man in Dehradun who is more than double her age.

She was also ill-treated and beaten up by her in-laws after the marriage, the teacher told the Chamoli revenue authorities.

The girl did not come to school after it reopened in February after months of lockdown.

However, when she returned to school after a prolonged absence on Monday, she shared her ordeal with her teacher.