Hyderabadi teen’s father arrested for forcibly marrying her off to Omani national
text_fields
Hyderabad: The police on Friday arrested two brokers and father of the 16-year old girl in the old city, who was “forcibly married” off to a 65-year old Oman national in June.
According to the police, the girl’s father Syed Anwar had colluded with his sister Ghousia and her husband Sikandar and sold the girl to the Oman national with the help of two brokers, Ahmed and Haji.
“The father submitted a forged affidavit stating that the girl’s age is 21 in order to obtain passport and visa for her,” said deputy commissioner of police, Hyderabad (south zone), V Satyanarayana.
While Ahmed and Haji are being interrogated, the qazi who performed the marriage, couldn’t be questioned as he had just undergone bypass surgery.
The police registered a case of cheating and criminal intimidation against the Omani, the girl’s father, his sister, her husband, the qazi and others.
“We are trying to find the credentials of the Oman national, whose name was mentioned as Ahmed in the complaint. There were instances in the past that such aged sheiks were not actually rich, but belonged to poor families. In a couple of cases, it was found that the so-called Arab Sheiks were actually beggars and had also forced their wives taken from Hyderabad to beg,” Satyanarayana said. “In the present case, we were told the Oman national had paid Rs 5 lakh to Goushia and Sikandar. We are investigating into the claim.”
The DCP said efforts were on to rescue the minor girl. “We are hopeful to bring her back to Hyderabad in 3-4 days,” he said.
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 phone that her husband was mentally and physically torturing her.
Her mother Sayeeda lodged a complaint with Falaknuma police station that her husband, his sister and brother-in-law “sold” the girl to the Omani man for Rs 5 lakh.
Union minister for women and child development, Maneka Gandhi had on Thursday described the incident as “deeply disturbing”. She urged external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene.
