On Sunday evening, the control room officials at Kalaburagi in Karnataka got a frantic call from a Class 7 girl student, seeking intervention to stop her Gujjar marriage.

The girl said that she was forcibly brought from Surpur town of Yadgir to Narboli village of Jewargi taluk of Kalaburagi on December 16 to perform pre-marriage rituals, a report in The New Indian Express states.

The matter was referred to Child Development Project officer and later to the Child Protection unit of Women and Child Welfare Department.

When District Child Protection officer C V Raman rushed to Narboli to meet her, the girl informed the officer that her marriage to a 26-year-old Gujarati youth named Devaraj, was to take place at Diggavi. 

She revealed the involvement of her mother, maternal uncles and aunt in arranging the marriage.

The child’s maternal uncle Suryakant was then taken into custody, who in turn named Nagamma of Diggavi village, as the mediator.

After raiding Nagamma’s house with the help of the police, the woman, along with her husband Bombay Gopal, sister Ratna and her husband Vijay Solanke were arrested for arranging the marriage.

The child was then admitted to Children’s Home for Girls, states the report.