Seven booked for conducting child marriage in Madhya Pradesh

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Police on Thursday registered a case against seven persons, including a priest and the parents of a 15-year-old girl and a man aged 19, for solemnising their marriage, an official said. They were married as per the Hindu customs on April 24, he said.

Chandan Nagar police filed a case against them under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. The Madhya Pradesh government started a campaign called Lado Abhiyan in 2013 to keep a check on child marriages.

Mahendra Pathak, who is part of the flying squad under this campaign, said the minor girl's father told them that his daughter and the 19-year-old man were in love with each other. The girl had even threatened that them if they don't let her marry him, she would end her own life, he said.

Marriage of a boy below the age of 21 and girls below the age of 18 is forbidden by law in the country and its violation invites two years of rigours imprisonment or one lakh fine or both under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

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