Teenager Sold ‘In Marriage’ For Rs 5 Lakhs

Hyderabad: A 16-year-old girl from the city was married off to a 65-year-old Omani national three months ago, her mother has alleged.

Her sister-in-law and her husband took Rs 5 lakh to facilitate the marriage, the woman alleged in her complaint with Falaknuma police on Wednesday. Additional inspector T Murali Krishna said the woman told police that her daughter, who is now in Muscat, called her up some days ago and said that her husband was ill-treating her. The marriage took place at a hotel in Barkas area when the Omani man visited the city three months ago, the woman said. "When the woman spoke to him on phone and asked him to send her daughter back, he said he had paid Rs five lakh to Sikander (her sister-in-law's husband) and she should return the money first," the police officer said.

Police registered a case against Sikander, his wife, the Omani national and two friends of Sikander's for cheating and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code. A senior police officer said that they would write to the Ministry of Home Affairs to arrange the girl's return to India. "We will also ask the Indian Embassy to initiate necessary action against the Omani national in that country," he said.

The girl's family is quite poor, and the role of some others, including the qazi who solemnised the marriage, was being probed, he added.