MP: Panchayat fixes marriage of girl, 5, with boy, 8, as punishment to father

Guna (Madhya Pradesh): A team has been sent to Tarpur village for investigating a Panchayat which fixed marriage of a five-year-old girl with an eight-year-old boy.

Guna ADM Nizam Khan has assured that strict action would be taken against the culprits.

"We are sending a probe team to this village, strict action will be taken against the culprits," Khan said.

Read: MP child marriage: Constitution doesn't allow such incidents, says Panchayat Minister

The marriage was fixed as the villagers felt that nothing ‘auspicious had happened in the village’ since the girl’s father, Jagdish Banjara, killed a calf three years back.

Banjara had hit a calf with a stone while it was feeding in his field, due to which the calf died. Following this, he and his family were boycotted by the villagers. He was also asked to take bath in the Ganges and distribute food in village.

According to the Panchayat, since the death of the calf nothing auspicious has happened in the village. Thus, as a mark of repentance, the Panchayat had arranged for Jagdish's five-year-old daughter's to be married to an eight-year-old boy.

Raising voice against the injustice, the girl's mother filed a complaint with SDM Neeraj Sharma. The officials had already given a warning to the Panchayat to not go forward with such a thing but the Panchayat was adamant on doing it.