Rajasthan man buys child bride for ₹3 lakh, tortures her for not conceiving

A 14-year-old girl, sold by her mother's live-in partner in Rajasthan's Dholpur for ₹3 lakh last year, escaped this week and filed a police complaint against the 40-year-old man who bought her for marriage, police said.

The girl travelled 300km from Dholpur to state capital Jaipur where she was spotted by child rights group Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) and handed over to the city police, Jawahar Circle station house officer, Radharaman Gupta said. She has been sent to the government's shelter home for girls in Jaipur.

Gupta said a zero first information report (FIR) – it can be filed by any police station and has to be sent to the police station under whose jurisdiction the crime took place — was filed on Thursday under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Indian Penal Code.

In her statement to the police that formed the basis for the FIR, the girl from a remote Dholpur village said a few years ago, she moved with her mother to stay in her live-in partner's house. Last year, the live-in partner, who often called her a liability, allegedly sold her for ₹3 lakh to a middle-aged man who “married her”.

Over the next nine months, the teenage girl said she was repeatedly raped and abused by her “husband” who thrashed her if she resisted. Lately, the man and his family also started shaming her because she hadn't conceived.

Citing her statement, Gupta said she had made several attempts to run away in the past but was unsuccessful. This week, she finally succeeded and reached Jaipur.

Police said appropriate penal sections relating to the trafficking of minors will be added by the investigators.

Manish Sharma, director of Bachpan Bachao Andolan said, “This incident highlights the plight of victims of child marriage and the pain they go through early in their life. It is high time that child marriage is looked at as a major crime against children rather than an acceptable social practice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sachin Saini is Special Correspondent for Rajasthan. He covers politics, tourism, forest, home, panchayati raj and rural development, and development journalism.