Hyderabad: Six persons including the husband of a 14-year-old girl and her parents were arrested by Nalgonda police for forcing the girl into a child marriage four months ago. The girl, who was kept confined, escaped and had approached her school principal on Wednesday. The arrested persons are her 50- year-old husband Ramavath Ravi Nayak, father Dhanakoti, stepmother Jeeja, stepbrother Nagaraju, stepsister Sujatha and priest Araveera Sharma who solemnised the marriage.
Police said the girl was studying in Class IX at the Government ST Girls Hostel in Devarakonda mandal. In September 2016 when she went home for Dussehra, her stepbrother Nagaraju told her parents that he had a proposal for her marriage. He told them that one Ravi who owns a welding shop and was financially well off would like to marry her, and both parents agreed. Nagaraju took the girl to his sister Sujatha's house in Kondamallepally and confined her there.
On November 4, 2016, she was forcibly married to Ravi. She was later sent back to Sujatha's home and shifted to Ravi's home. Since then she was in confinement. On Wednesday. she escaped from home, reached her school and explained her problem to the principal. Later, on a complaint from the school coordinator, police registered a case under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. All the six persons who forced the girl into the marriage were arrested and remanded.
