Vadodara: Four persons, including a ‘maulvi’ from Pratapnagar, were booked under provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act at Wadi police station. The complaint was registered on Friday night after a 19-year-old girl, who had gone missing from her house in January, returned after marrying a boy she was engaged to, but was underage.
The girl identified as Fukrajbanu Malek had gone missing on January 3 from her house in Sarkhej in Ahmedabad. Malek’s father Rehmat Khan Malek then registered a missing person’s complaint at Sarkhej police station. A month later, police found the girl along with Afridi Khan Pathan, who she was engaged to. Malek submitted a live-in relationship agreement between her and Pathan to police.
However, later during questioning it came to light that Malek and Pathan had married under Islamic rites at Pratapnagar in Vadodara. The duo got married in the presence of Pathan’s uncle, Idrish Khan Pathan. The other relatives there were Usman Khan alias Baba Khan Pathan and Abbas Khan Pathan. As Pathan had not reached 21 years of age, Rehmat Khan Malek filed a complaint for violation of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act at Sarkhej police station in Ahmedabad against three of Pathan’s relatives and the ‘maulvi’.
The case was then transferred to Wadi police station as the wedding took place in Pratapnagar in its jurisdiction.
“We have not begun investigation as we were busy on VIP duties. From the case details it seems that after the couple’s engagement took place, the girl’s father may be against the wedding and therefore must have approached police,” said a police official.