Statesman News Service
MALDA, Feb. 22: A helpless Malda district administration today sought media support against forcible marriage of a 14-year-old girl from a minority community. The administration seems to have failed to provide her security at her own home due to a rigid social barrier.The girl was forced to marry a 70-year-old retired primary teacher Chand Mohammad when she was sleeping. The incident occurred in the last week of September 2006. The next day the girl, with the help of one of her brothers, met the Malda police and sought justice. The Malda Sub-divisional officer, Ms Arunima De, said: “We need media help to put pressure on the family as well as the society and find a way for her safety at home.” In consultation with the additional district magistrate (general), Mr Abdul Khaleque, the Malda SDO had summoned the parents of the victim and discussed a lot with them individually and jointly in presence of other officials including the additional superintendent of police on 7 February 2007. But the parents denied the incident of forcible marriage. Instead they alleged that their daughter had been kidnapped by a group of people. “We are certain that the victim’s mother was being prompted by someone. It is worrisome to see a mother go against her own child,” the SDO, said.The girl, who only can write her name, wants to go back home but the situation of the family as well as the village is not suitable for her safety and security. At present we do not want to send her to a government home against her opinion, the SDO confessed.It may be recalled that the girl had met national women’s rights commission member Mrs Malini Bhattacharjee when she was in Malda and Mrs Bhattacharjee had visited the Lakshmighaat village a few months ago. The Malda superintendent of police, Mr DK Mondal, had initiated a case against the victim’s father Md Syed Ali, the 70-year-old husband Chand Mohammad and others, including the marriage registrar on the basis of Anaras’s statement. According to a district official her statement read as follows: “…my family members forcibly took me away when I was in deep sleep and forced me to give consent to the marriage holding a sharp weapon against my neck.”Though her father and others had to surrender to the Malda Court after the case initiated by the police, they lodged two cases with the court to counter the police after their bail plea was granted. The SDO said that the girl was staying in different places with one of her brothers who is a rickshaw puller. The parents have driven out the son and her wife from home.
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