Cops avert child marriage after social media tipoff

BAREILLY: Pilibhit police averted a child marriage in a village on Sunday, after a tip-off from social media.

Shivdhar Pal of Tilagiri village in Bilsanda area had fixed the marriage of his 15-year-old daughter with a 23-year- old man from Banda area of Shahjahanpur. The marriage was to take place in the village on Sunday.

At around 3pm, the groom reached the village with the marriage procession. But before the rituals could begin, a police team from Bilsanda reached the spot and ordered to stop the marriage.

SP, Pilibhit Devranjan Verma, told HT, “Our sources reported the news of a minor’s wedding doing the rounds on social media. This alerted us and I sent the police team to investigate the matter.”

The news was circulated on social media by social workers of the area. An advocate who was aware of the marriage also informed the SP and urged him to look into the matter.

A police team under S-I Rishipal Singh reached the village and inquired about the girl’s age. “The girl was found to be 15 as per her school records. We informed her parents and the groom that she was under age and asked them to postpone the marriage till she turned 18,” the SI said. “The family initially refused to listen to us but understood when we told them about the law,” Singh said.

Once both sides agreed to postpone the marriage, the police left the parents with just a warning.