12-year-old UP girl calls police to prevent marriage

Twelve-year-old Ragini (name changed), a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Fatehpur district about 100 kilometres from here, wanted to pursue her studies but her parents were adamant on getting her married with a man more than twice her age.

The minor's parents had got the sixth-grade student's name struck off the rolls of the school a few months back and planned to solemnise her marriage next week.

When Ragini's pleas failed to have any impact on her parents, she took it upon herself to not only thwart their plan but also bring the matter to light.

On Sunday, when her parents had gone to the field for work, she dialed 112 (the emergency response number of the UP police) and narrated the entire ordeal to the cops.

She told the cops that the prospective groom, who was more than double her age, used to visit her father often and the two would drink liquor together.

Within half an hour, a PRV (police response vehicle) reached her home and took her to the local police station.

''We called her parents to the police station and spoke to them....they admitted to the marriage plan....they were warned that they would be arrested if they tried to force a minor into the wedding,'' said a police official in Fatehpur.

Police said that the parents were let off only after they gave an undertaking in writing that the girl would be married only after she became an adult and gave her consent.