Hyderabad, June 21: No sooner has the dust over the child marriage in Rajahmundry settled down, than hackles are up again over a near-tragedy, and in the State capital at that.
A 15-year-old girl was about to be married off to a 50-year-old divorcee, when the cops arrived in the nick of time and put a stop to the nuptials after the girl’s elder sister blew the whistle.
The incident would have been the third in a week in the State of a young girl being yoked to an elderly man.
Kamakshi of Tadigadapa near Vijayawada was given away to one Eswar at the Railway Kalyana Mandapam in Ameerpet at 10:30 a.m today.
According to police and the girl’s family, Eswar is an employee of the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) and resident of Shalivahananagar in Ameerpet. He had recently divorced his first wife. Kamakshi, his new bride, is the second daughter of T Maruthi Prasad, a caterer at the Kaleswara Rao Market locality in Vijayawada.
He had married off his first daughter to one Prabhu and the couple have settled down in Hyderabad. Incredible as it may sound, even for Kamakshi this is apparently the second marriage. Police said she had been married to one Vishnu Sarma of Vijayawada in 2008 and that they too had divorced recently.
“I had no other go but to marry my daughter, who is 17 years old, due to my poor financial condition. The groom is well settled and it is only for the well-being of my daughter that I went ahead. The groom told us that he was only 35 years old and had divorced his first wife,’’ Maruthi Prasad told Express.
Even as the wedding rites were under way, Kamakshi’s elder sister Kalyani reached the Punjagutta police station and lodged a complaint stating that her sister’s marriage was being forced into marriage and that she was a minor. Punjagutta police swung into action, put an end to the mischief and took the groom and the girl’s family into custody.
Eswar, for his part, told reporters that he had decided to marry Kamakshi as her family had said she was a major. “I saw the divorce papers of Kamakshi before the marriage,’’ he further said.
Punjagutta Inspector K Ashoka Chakravarthy said: “We stopped the wedding on the basis of the complaint by Kamakshi’s elder sister, Kalyani. Kamakshi had earlier been married to one Vishnu Sarma of Vijaywada and they had divorced recently.
A case under Sections 4, 6 and 7 of the Child Marriage (Restraint) Act has been registered and investigation is on,’’ he said.
Police said they would send the girl for age determination tests.
-Agencies