Forced into marriage and raped, 15-yr-old girl rescued by Noida police

Police said the girl is at a shelter home in Noida and her statement under 164 CrPC is likely to be recorded on Monday.(Representational Image)

“Tricked into marriage” at the age of 10 and allegedly raped by her husband and his brother, a 15-year-old girl from Nepal was finally rescued by Noida police. She is now the mother of a two-year-old boy. Police added that the girl was one month pregnant when she was rescued, but has since had a miscarriage.

Anil Kumar Shai, SHO of Sector 20 police station, confirmed “that an FIR had been lodged and investigation is underway”. The FIR was lodged under IPC sections 376 (rape), 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and Section 12 of POCSO Act pertaining to punishment for sexual harassment.

It has named the man she was forced to “marry”, his brother, parents and an aunt and uncle. The husband and the brother have been arrested.

The incident came to light when the girl called Childline — a central government-run helpline — following which she was rescued. Police said the girl is at a shelter home in Noida and her statement under 164 CrPC is likely to be recorded on Monday. Her parents have also arrived from Nepal, police added.

According to the FIR, the girl said, five years ago, her parents travelled to Bihar’s Madhubani district to attend her sister’s wedding. There, they met the accused and his family. “The man’s mother told my parents that he should get married to me. My father refused, saying I was too young,” she said. The accused and his family then came to Nepal and suggested that she travel with them to India “so she could meet her elder sister”, the FIR said. “I didn’t want to go as my Class IV exams were going on. My father didn’t listen and sent me with them,” she said in the FIR.

The next day, the FIR said, they put “mehendi on her hands”, “dressed her up like a bride” and “forced her to get married to the accused.” Recounting the night after her ‘wedding’, she alleged: “I told my mother-in-law that I wanted to sleep next to her as I was scared of my husband. She agreed but left the room a little while later. The accused came inside the room, locked the door and forced himself on me.”

Meanwhile, the accused lied to the girl’s family about her whereabouts. In the FIR, she alleged, “If I refused physical relations with him, he and his family would beat me up, lock me inside the house without food and make me do all the housework.”

Police said when her parents found out about the forced wedding, they came to Bihar. “The matter was referred to the village panchayat, which decided I would have to live with the accused.”

By 2015, the girl said she became pregnant. “During this time, my brother-in-law forced himself on her. The family knew about it,” she claimed. She gave birth to a boy in October 2015.

The family moved to Noida soon after, where the two men allegedly continued to rape her. The FIR added, “The accused said I should start prostituting myself and bring in extra cash, else he would kill me.”