NEW DELHI: A 13-year-old girl from north-west Delhi’s Bharat Nagar, who left home following a dispute with her father, was rescued nearly a month later after being trafficked and forcibly married off in Uttar Pradesh. She boarded a train that took her to Meerut, where two men lured her with false promises and took her to Shamli. There, she was illegally married to a 40-year-old man. A fake Aadhaar card was used to show her age as 19 years. The girl’s missed call to her grandmother eventually led to her rescue. Police have arrested three men in connection with the case.Police sources said the force got a complaint about a missing girl on July 22. Despite continuous effort by the family and the police, she could not be traced at first. A case was registered under Section 137 (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
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“While we were searching for the girl, her family informed us that they had received a missed call from an unknown number. When they called back, a woman answered and said her daughter-in-law might have made the call, then abruptly disconnected it. The number provided by the family had one incorrect digit, and when a police team followed that lead to Mathura, it turned out to be false, a police source said. Later, after obtaining the correct phone number, the team traced the location to Shamli and rescued the girl from a home.Police later learned that the girl had left her home and taken a bus to a railway station and randomly boarded a train that led her to Meerut. While she was wandering in the station, she encountered a 20-year-old man, who promised to help her settle down. However, it was a trap. The man from Hapur, along with a 55-year-old associate from Meerut, took the girl to Shamli, where they forced her to marry a 40-year-old man on July 24 in exchange for Rs 15,000-20,000. They made a fake Aadhaar card to falsify her age as 19 years.Four days after the forced marriage, the girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by the 40-year-old man at his residence. Police are now investigating whether other minor girls — often from impoverished backgrounds — were similarly trafficked and forcibly married to older men.The duo, and the man who married the girl, have been booked under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including charges of human trafficking, exploitation of a trafficked person, and forgery of official documents. Additionally, provisions under Sections 6 and 21 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act as well as Sections 9 and 10 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, have been invoked against the trio. The arrests were carried out by a team from the Bharat Nagar police station. When contacted, DCP (northwest) Bhisham Singh said that the investigation was on.
