Mehanz Mehnu, husband of vlogger Rifa Mehnu who was found dead in her apartment in Dubai on March 1, was booked under various Sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on Thursday.
The Kasaragod native was also quizzed by a special investigation squad on the basis of documentary evidence that attested his marriage with Rifa violating the age of consent before she turned 18. She was reportedly pregnant at the age of 17, and it was a clear case of child marriage, the police said.
The man had been previously booked under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 498 A (punishment for subjecting woman to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code following a preliminary investigation by the Kakkur police.
According to the investigation team, the 21-year-old was a victim of her husband’s mental torture over her social media popularity. Rifa had earlier shared her harrowing experiences with her family members in Kozhikode that helped the police follow up the case in detail, they said.
Based on her parents’ complaint, Rifa’s body had been exhumed for post-mortem from the burial ground of Pavandoor Juma Masjid. It was done on May 7 following her parents’ allegation that no post-mortem was conducted in Dubai to ascertain the cause of her death.
There were also suspected attempts on the part of her husband’s family to propagate that the post-mortem was conducted properly in Dubai, to mislead local people and the police. In the police investigation, their stand was found wrong. According to police sources, only a few forensic examinations were conducted in Dubai before sending her body to her home town in Kozhikode on March 3.
