Minor girl from Madhya Pradesh sold as ‘bride’ twice in 5 months, rescued in Kota

A 17-year-old girl from Madhya Pradesh who left on a trip after her class 10 exams ended up being abducted and sold as a bride twice, a Child Welfare Committee (CWC) official here said on Tuesday.

She landed up with the panel in Kota when she was found by the railway police, shortly after she had tried to commit suicide at the house where she was kept for months against her will, CWC chairperson Kaniz Fatima said.

The ordeal began over five months ago when the girl left her home in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni for a trip after giving her class 10 exams, Fatima said.

While she was waiting for a train at Katni railway station, some youths befriended her and took her to a nearby park, where they offered her food and drink. After consuming it she became unconscious, she said.

When the girl gained consciousness, she found herself in a hotel room in Ujjain with two men and a woman, she said.

The victim told that they threatened her and forced her to marry a 27-year-old man. After marriage the man told the girl that he had bought her for Rs 2 lakh, Fatima said.

The man died four months after their marriage after accidentally consuming pesticide and his family members then sold the girl to another man in Kota district’s Kanwas area on the pretext of marriage.

Not being able to bear physical exploitation and discovering that her "second husband" bought her for Rs 3 lakh, the girl tried to commit suicide but could not do it so she ran away from her in-law’s house, the CWC chairperson said.

She reached a local railway station and boarded a train for Kota city. Noticing the minor in a bad condition, the railway police personnel approached her at Kota railway station on Monday morning. She narrated her ordeal to them following which they informed the ChildLine and CWC, Fatima said.

The minor’s parents were contacted and they told that they had filed a missing complaint in a local police station after the girl did not return home, she added.

The parents and local police will reach Kota on Wednesday, she said.