A day ahead of the marriage of a minor girl, the police got it postponed after counselling the bride’s parents and the bridegroom following a telephonic complaint by her classmates at Hayathnagar on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old bride’s parents, Gopal and Satyamma, and the bridegroom, a driver in a private company, in his mid-20s, agreed to perform the marriage with the consent of the girl after she becomes a major. A ninth standard student, the girl was studying in the Zilla Parishad High School at Koheda in Hayathnagar when her parents fixed her marriage with a close relative.
“The girl told her classmates that she wanted to pursue her studies but her parents were forcing her into the marriage,” Hayathnagar Inspector G. Srinivas Kumar said.
Her classmates inquired about the local police telephone numbers and called up the Inspector seeking his help in stopping the marriage.
The police went to Koheda village, checked the school records and found that the girl was not more than 16 years.
“We told them it was illegal to perform the marriage of a girl at that age and counselled them,” the Inspector said.
