Police here claimed to have uncovered a racket of forcing minor girls into marriage with the arrest of four persons and rescue of two girls from Gujarat.
Those arrested include two men who lured the ninth standard girls from here last year and took them to that state
and the two grooms, police said.
Superintendent of Police M N Nagaraj told reporters that the girls, staying at a girls hostel here, were reported
missing on December 3, 2011.
The case was handed over to District Crime Information Bureau (DCIB) for investigation after the girls’ parents
lodged a complaint.
DCIB traced one 14-year-old girl to Jamnagar in Gujarat where she was living with her husband.Based on her information they traced the other girl who had also been forcibly married off, to Theerthagoan village in Banasga District, he said.
The girls told police a man from Haveri district and his friend had lured them and taken them to Gujarat by train and they were later forcibly married off to the two men.
The girls had been sent to a remand home, Nagaraj said, adding they had expressed their desire to live with their
parents.
————————-PTI