Police stop child marriage near Thuraiyur

TRICHY: Police stopped the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to a 25-year-old man near Thuraiyur in Trichy district on Thursday.
The Childline department received a tip-off regarding the child marriage near Thuraiyur and passed on the information to the police. A team of police led by Thuraiyur sub-inspector N Haroon went to a temple where the wedding ceremony was about to begin on Thursday.
According to the police, after realising that the police were about to arrive at the spot, the family of the bride and the groom quickly sent the minor girl away.They also arranged for a 25-year-old married woman as a ‘makeshift bride’ to conceal the marriage.
When the police inquired with the family about the child marriage, they initially denied and presented the married woman as the bride. On further enquiry, the families confessed.
The police have learnt that the groom, Anand, was a divorcee and that his and the girl’s family had fixed the marriage sometime back. The girl was taken into Childline custody and the department officials would be giving counselling to her parents.