Minor ‘sold’, married to 65-year-old Arab

SAYEEDA UNNISAA, MOTHER OF THE GIRL, SAID SHE RECEIVED A CALL FROM HER DAUGHTER SAYING SHE WAS BEING TORTURED BY HER ARAB HUSBAND

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Police are probing a complaint by a woman that her 16-year-old daughter was forcibly married to a 65-year-old Arab by her sister-in-law in June, officials said on Thursday.

Sayeeda Unnisaa, a resident of Nawab Saheb Kunta area of the old city, lodged a complaint with on Wednesday that she recently received a call from her daughter saying she was being physically tortured by her husband Sheik Ahmed in Oman’s capital Muscat, and she was desperate to return to India.

“When she pleaded with him to send her back to Hyderabad, he reportedly said he had bought her by paying ~5 lakh to Sikandar and that she would be allowed to go back only after the amount is returned,” she told the police.

Sayeeda said her sister-in-law Ghousia got her daughter married to the Oman national a few days before Ramzan in collusion with her husband Sikandar. Sayeeda claimed she was not interested in getting her daughter married to the man but Sikandar and Ghousia convinced her that her daughter would lead a luxurious life in Muscat. Sikandar performed the wedding of the girl at a hotel near Barkas with the help of a cleric, she said.

Ahmed left for Muscat after spending four days with the girl after which she was brought to the residence of Sikandar at Teegalkunta area of the city.

He arranged for a passport and other documents for the girl to fly to Muscat a couple of weeks later.