Almost two months after an underage girl was allegedly kidnapped for marriage, the Gorakhpur police arrested the accused Mansoor, 26, from Hamirpur on Thursday. Both the girl and the man belong to different communities.
The accused, Mansoor, a resident of the Hamirpur district, was arrested from the Bhiti Rawat area, the police said. As per Sahjanwa Station House Officer (SHO), Santosh Yadav, the girl had been allegedly kidnapped in November.
The father of the girl had filed a complaint after his daughter had been kidnapped. Acting on the written complaint lodged by her father, a search operation was launched and the girl was traced and rescued on Wednesday this week.
During the probe launched by the police, it came to light that the minor girl was abducted by a man belonging to a different community.
In a bid to defend himself, the accused claimed that the girl was an adult and therefore legally capable of taking her own decisions. The accused, Mansoor cited the girl’s Aadhaar card to claim that she is an adult and asked the police to steer clear of the case. However, the girl’s father presented his daughter’s high school certificate which showed her age to be 17 years.
Section of new law on forced conversion could be slapped based on the medical report: Police
The police SHO confirmed that the high school mark sheet of the girl deemed her to be a minor. Yadav also added after the probe is over, a section of the new law on forced conversion would be added if needed.
“The girl has been sent for a medical check-up. As per her high school mark sheet, she is 17-years-old. The man has been booked under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (abducting or inducing woman to compel her for marriage) of the IPC and the section of the new law on forced conversion will be added after the medical report confirms her to be a minor,” Yadav said.
