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Minor girl from Nepal travels to MP on marriage promise, rescued after 18 days
The minor girl lives with her father in Nepal while her mother works abroad. She was quite active on different social media platforms and was easily misguided by her contact in India, said a child welfare officer.
A 16-year-old girl, who travelled more than 1,300 km distance from Kathmandu in Nepal to a small district of Sehore in Madhya Pradesh to marry a 21-year-old man, was handed over to her mother after 18 days on Monday, said a member of the child welfare committee (CWC), Bhopal.
The cyber experts and officers of the Embassy of Nepal and India traced her with the help of her mobile number locations and her activities on social media on November 27. She was rescued by Sehore police.
Police also arrested a resident of Asta, Mahesh Siloriya, 21, who called her to Sehore for marriage, under section 370 (trafficking), said Kripa Shankar Chaubey, member child welfare committee.
“The girl’s mother works in a reputed company in the middle east while the girl lives with her father in Nepal. She was quite active on different social media platforms and was easily misguided by Siloriya,” said Chaubey.
A senior police officer said that Siloriya had told the girl that he would kill himself if she didn’t come to Sehore.
“The girl said she met with Siloriya over Tiktok two years ago. They used to talk with each other through video calls. The girl’s family came to know about their friendship a few months ago and they tried to stop her from talking to the man in India. In November, Siloriya called the girl and asked her to come to Sehore otherwise he would kill himself,” said Sameer Yadav, additional superintendent of police, Sehore.
“The girl boarded a Kathmandu-Lucknow flight and reached Lucknow on November 25. He boarded a train on November 26 and reached Bhopal on November 27. She reached Asta via bus where women police personnel rescued her,” said Yadav.
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She was handed over to the child welfare committee, which counselled her and sent her to a shelter, he said.
“Her mother reached Sehore on Monday with officers of Embassy of Nepal and took the girl back,” Yadav added.
Police interrogated Siloriya to rule out the possibility of an organised trafficking gang’s involvement.
As of now, we didn’t find any criminal conspiracy in the matter. Siloriya is a daily wager and worked at a medical shop, said police.
