The Mumbai Police Crime Branch has rescued a 15-year-old girl, who was allegedly forced to marry a 19-year-old man around two weeks ago. The girl, a resident of West Bengal’s Malda district, was rescued on Wednesday. The 19-year-old, Sajid Shaikh, a resident of Bandra (East), allegedly raped and beat the teen repeatedly. Her paternal uncle, who arranged the wedding, Sajid and his father Mustafa (55), who claimed the girl was 19 years old despite knowing her real age, were arrested on Wednesday and an FIR registered at the Nirmal Nagar police station.
Inspector Asha Korke, attached to Unit 9 of the Crime Branch, had received a tip-off that a girl had been seen crying near the Mount Mary Church in Bandra on Wednesday. “We reached the spot and tried communicating with the girl but she spoke only in Bengali. We then took the help of another woman who understood her language. The girl said she had been tortured by a man she had been married off to 15 days ago. She had been trying to escape from the house in Bandra and had found an opportunity on Wednesday when the family members were away,” said Korke.
The girl, who could not speak any other language and did not know how to return home, eventually reached Mount Mary Church. Later, she told police that Sajid would come home drunk, force himself on her and beat her up. The girl remembered her mother’s cellphone number, using which the police contacted her. Later, the police made the woman call up the girl’s uncle and say that that a Bengali-speaking girl had been found on a train in Mumbai.
Her uncle, suspecting it was his 15-year-old niece, asked the woman to come to Wadala, where he worked as a fisherman. He was then arrested and led the police to Sajid.
Source : Indian Express
