Minor’s marriage stopped

Chennai: Government officials on Sunday morning stopped a minor girl’s marriage that was about to take place in a wedding hall in Adyar.

The girl – a class eleven student – was to get married to a 22-year-old man.

A police team and volunteers from the child help line rushed to the marriage hall early on Sunday morning after the help line officials received the information.

The girl, 16, has been studying in school in Puducherry while her family resided in Sholavaram.  “As of now she has been sent to a government shelter home,” the police said. The police don’t want the families again trying to conduct the marriage.

The girl’s brother is already married to the sister of the groom. “So the families decided to go ahead with the second marriage within the family.

But based on a alert through help line we had to intervene and stop the marriage,” police said.

We have found that the girl was just 16-years old. Her parents had given us a written statement that they will not marry her off before she attains the age of 18.

We have advised them to send the girl to school and let her continue her study, the police noted.