BHOPAL: Kangaroo justice continues in Madhya Pradesh where a man was reportedly asked by village elders to marry his minor daughter (aged below 14 years) as atonement for accidentally killing a calf few months ago in Vidisha district.
But the Women and Child Development (WCD) department team escorted by police arrived in time and stopped the illegal marriage from happening on Friday.
According to sources at the Pathariya police station in Vidisha district, a man hailing from Lodhi (Other Backward Caste) community, while driving a two-wheeler had accidentally run over a calf, resulting in the mammal’s death a few months back.
As atonement for the sin of killing the cow, out of the superstitious beliefs, he took the ritualistic bath in the Ganga river and was preparing to throw a feast for village elders to complete the atonement in Kolhua village.
But the village elders refused to turn up for the feast and instead asked him to marry his minor daughter on Friday.
Compelled by the diktats by village elders, the concerned man was about to marry his daughter on Friday, when the WCD team arrived at the marriage venue and stopped the marriage.
The girl’s family argued there was nothing illegal in the wedding as the girl was of marriageable age. The WCD team then asked the family for the girl’s Aadhar details, which later revealed that she wasn’t even aged 14 years.
While confirming the development, the Pathariya police station in-charge BD Singh told The New Indian Express on Sunday evening that no case was registered in the matter.
The matter is being probed by the WCD department.
Three years back, in a similar incident, a caste panchayat of Banjara tribe had ordered a man to get his 7-year-old daughter married to an 8-year-old boy, as punishment for killing a calf three years back in Guna district.