Mysuru: V.V. Puram Police have arrested a youth on charges of kidnapping a minor girl from a Kalyana Mantap in city and marrying her at the Sub-Registrar’s Office in Mandya. The Police have also seized a car used to kidnap the girl.

The arrested youth is Pratap, a resident of Beluru village, Kothatti hobli in Mandya district and the minor girl also belongs to the same village.

According to the complaint lodged by the girl’s father with V.V. Puram Police, he along with his family members including his minor daughter had come to a Kalyana Mantap on KRS Road in Gokulam to attend the marriage ceremony of a relative on May 5 at about 7 pm and after attending the marriage, they had stayed overnight in the Kalyana Mantap.

But on May 5 at about 10.15 am, he found his daughter missing and was searching for her when a person from his village told him that Pratap took his daughter in a car and sped away.

The girl’s father along with his relatives rushed to the village and searched for them in the village and surrounding places during which one of the persons known to him informed him that Pratap had married his daughter at the Sub-Registrar’s Office in Mandya.

The girl’s father has further stated in the complaint that when he and his relatives rushed to the Sub-Registrar’s Office at Mandya and enquired about it, they were told that Pratap had indeed married his daughter through a  registered marriage. 

He then rushed to the Police and filed a complaint against Pratap stating that he (Pratap) had kidnapped his minor daughter and though she is yet to attain 18-years-of age, Pratap had married her at the Sub-Registrar’s Office in Mandya. He  urged the Police to initiate legal action against accused Pratap.

Based on the complaint from the minor girl’s father, V.V. Puram Police, who swung into action, arrested Pratap within a few hours of receiving the complaint and rescued the minor girl, who has been shifted to the Girls Balamandira.

The accused will be produced before a Court today and according to sources, Pratap had got a fake birth certificate of the minor girl done which showed that the girl was 19 years of age and had produced the same at the Sub-Registrar’s Office.