Pune: Rape case filed against husband and father of pregnant 17-year-old, anti-child marriage law invoked

A First Information Report in the case has been registered by the officials from Chakan police station after receiving communication from a state run hospital in Pimpri Chinchwad on Monday. The hospital authorities told the police that they were treating a 17-year-old married girl who is three months pregnant. Police subsequently conducted a preliminary probe.

In the FIR registered on Tuesday, the police have invoked Indian Penal Code section 376 (Rape) and provision of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. Police said that the family of the girl and the 19-year-old husband hail from the same village in Khed taluka of Pune. The two got married in July last year when the girl was 16. Police officials have said that they have provided counsellor support to the girl and were in contact with both families to sensitively deal with the situation. No arrests have been made in the case.

Police have appealed to citizens to approach them if they have information on any child marriage scheduled in their area. In the last week of March, the Bharosa Cell of Pune Rural Police had stopped the marriage of a 17-year-old girl with a 24-year-old man in a village in Shirur Taluka of Pune district. The police had convinced the families of legal implications of a child marriage. In a similar action in the Shirur area in January this year, the team from Bharosa Cell had stopped the marriage of a 16-year-old girl and a 22-year-old man. At present, the legal age of marriage in India is 18 for women and 21 for men. Recently the Union Cabinet has proposed to raise the legal age of marriage for women to 21.