More than a week after the case of a 16-year-old girl from Hyderabad being sold off and married to a Omani sheikh surfaced, the latter is now asking for Rs 5 lakh, to send the minor girl home.
The marriage was performed in May at a guest house in Jalpally where the Omani national was staying. He returned home after the marriage and sent a visa for the girl, who later joined him in Muscat.
Later, the girl informed her parents over the phone that her husband was mentally and physically torturing her.
Following this, her mother Fathima* lodged a complaint at the Falaknuma police station that her husband, his sister, Ghousia Begum, and brother-in-law, Sikander, "sold" the girl to the Omani man for Rs 5 lakh.
According to reports, they paid Rs 5 lakh to the brokers at the time of 'nikaah', which they also allegedly split with the Qazi who performed the marriage.
"Sikander obtained identity documents fraudulently with the help of some agents and applied for a passport through an Internet cafe owner. The police contacted Ahmed through the Indian Embassy in Oman and asked him to send the teenager back. The man said that he will send the girl soon. But now he is demanding the Rs 5 lakh he had paid to the brokers and the family here at the time of marriage. Embassy officials are also making efforts to convince him and is seeking help from the Oman government too," DCP, south,V Satyanarayana told Deccan Chronicle.
“He has committed a crime and a case was registered against him at the Falaknuma police station. We have to bring him here and ensure justice to the teenager,” the police officer added.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi had also urged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene last week.
The police also said that they were keeping a close watch on 60 brokers who were identified during the investigation of these cases in recent years. However, brokers based in Mumbai and even abroad were carrying on their activities by duping poor and illiterate families.
Meanwhile, mosques in Hyderabad are joining a growing campaign to stop schoolgirls being sold as brides to elderly Arab men.
According to reports, five to 10-minute announcements at mosques during sermons, will spread awareness against child marriages.
IANS inputs