Minor girl sold by parents for Rs 1.2 lakh near Mumbai; rescued by villagers

In a scene straight out of a Bollywood film a group of villagers and activists in the remote tribal hamlet of Pilanje Khurd in Bhiwandi about 51 km from Mumbai intercepted a fleet of cars exiting their village on May 6 What they uncovered inside one of the vehicles was a deeply disturbing story of abject poverty exploitation and greed They found a 14yearold girl belonging to the most vulnerable Katkari tribe wearing thin glass bangles and dressed in a bright heavy sareeThe rescued girlrsquos elder sister with her husbandIt turned out that the child had been sold by her father for Rs 120 lakh to a 35yearold man in a lsquoweddingrsquo ceremony The minor girl wasnrsquot dressed for a celebration but was being sold under the guise of marriage to a man nearly three times her age for a lsquobride pricersquo of Rs 120 lakhThere were no blessings no music only the sound of her footsteps mdash hesitant and fearful mdash as she was being led away childhood trailing behind her like the loose end of her saree But fate had other plans Suspicious villagers and tribal activists noticed the fleet of unfamiliar cars entering the village and sprang into actionThe house in Bhiwandi where the minor girl who was rescued lived before being sold into marriageParents on the runVillagers intercepted the vehicle and rescued the terrified girl just in time mdash before she could be taken to a life she never chose The police were alerted and a team from Ganeshpuri police station soon arrived taking several of the accused into custody Formal arrests followed offering a rare moment of justice in a place where silence too often swallows such crimesMiddleman Sanjay Laxman Jadhav who allegedly brokered the illegal child marriage deal right Main accused Mangesh Laxman Gadekar who allegedly paid Rs 12 lakh for the underage girlEight men including the groom Mangesh Laxman Gadekar were arrested However the middleman Sanjay Laxman Jadhav 40 and the girlrsquos parents remain absconding Her neighbours told midday that she lost her mother when she was too young and her father got married to another womanAccording to activist Dayanand Patil ldquoThe victim belongs to a vulnerable tribal family Her stepmother came in contact with the middleman who offered cash in exchange for the girl When he sensed trouble he escaped with his wiferdquo Jadhav a local resident played a key role in luring the girlrsquos family with promises of wealth and a better life for their daughter An FIR was registered on May 7 at Ganeshpuri police station against 11 individualslsquoFather counted moneyrsquoTo understand the scale of exploitation the midday team visited the village The girlrsquos elder sister spoke to midday saying they were being exploited due to poverty and illiteracy and because most government schemes in tribal areas are poorly implementedAniket Babaji Yewle Ganesh Tukaram Tajne Vishal Bansi Shinde Vishal Baban Gosawi Rohit Shivaji Yewle Pravin Vijay Kanse and Navnath Kerubahu JadhavldquoShe still played with broken dolls and borrowed schoolbooks from neighboursrdquo the sister said ldquoBut our parents sold her to a 35yearold man from Ahmednagar for Rs 120 lakh My father counted the money while she was being taken away in three cars I thank those who saved my sisterrdquoDespite laws and schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao child marriage still plagues impoverished belts in Maharashtra Tribal activists told midday that underage girls are often taken to unfamiliar places cut off from their families and subjected to abuse domestic servitude or forced labourTried to flee and bribePatil said one of the cars tried to escape while being escorted to the police station ldquoWe chased and stopped them on the highwayrdquoJayakant Patil who helped intercept the fleeing cars and expose the child marriage plot His younger brother Jayakant Patil added ldquoWhen we stopped them they asked lsquoIf the parents are okay with it why are you interferingrsquordquoActivist Nitin Ravte who helped expose the attempted child marriage in Pilanze Khurd Activist Nitin Ravte said ldquoThe groom had the audacity to say lsquoWersquore not eloping Wersquore marrying her properlyrsquordquoAnother activist Mahadu Manglya Ravte said the groom even attempted to bribe villagers to let them go The girlrsquos elder sister recounted ldquoI was working at a brick kiln when my father asked me to go home and said a few guests have come home When I returned I saw my underage sister in a bridal outfit My heart brokerdquo Activist Mahadu Ravte who was part of the rescue effort in the child marriage caseWhat the heroes sayLocal resident Ravindra Govind Ravte 28 noticed over a dozen unfamiliar people arriving in three cars around 10 am on May 6 ldquoThey took the girl to Jadhavrsquos broken house where a torn tarpaulin hung at the entrance She was forcibly married there and then taken away in a car I alerted my neighboursrdquo he recalled Ravindra Ravte a local resident who alerted villagers after spotting suspicious movement on May 6Dayanand Patil of Shramjeevi Sangathana said that when he learned of the incident he immediately intercepted the vehicles ldquoThe groom and his entourage came from Renwadi village in Ahmednagarrsquos Parner taluka We stopped them and questioned them but they were defiant We had to call the policerdquo he said Police later found wedding items mdash bangles bindis garlands mdash at Jadhavrsquos house Police took multiple pictures of the location Dayanand Patil Shramjeevi Sangathana who coordinated with police to rescue the minorComplainant speaksPramod Dattarey Kale Gram panchayat officer and complainant in the child marriage caseThe complainant gram panchayat officer Pramod Dattatreya Kale said ldquoThis was serious The entire village united to stop it I gave my statement to police and helped register the FIR against 11 accusedrdquo He added that the girl didnrsquot have an Aadhaar card so they contacted her school to get her birth certificate to strengthen the caseSantoshi Vinod Aadga Group Gram Sarpanch speaking on the illegal child marriage caseGroup gram sarpanch Santoshi Vinod Aadga said ldquoI wasnrsquot aware this practice existed here Now that it has come to light I demand strict action and will work with villagers and activists to raise awarenessrdquo The girlrsquos elder sister now a mother herself added ldquoI have two young sistersinlaw Irsquom worried for all tribal girls These racketeers target poor families like ours People like them should never be sparedrdquoAt the police stationSome of the arrested accused at the police station after locals and activists stopped the illegal marriageldquoWhen the cops asked the groom why he purchased a minor girl for marriage he replied lsquoWersquore poor No one agrees to marry us so we have to buy girlsrsquordquo said activist Dayanand Patil He added that middleman Sanjay Jadhav was deeply involved ldquoHe knew the community well and convinced the family to sell their daughter for a onetime monetary gain Gadekar admitted to paying Rs 50000 in advance and the remaining R70000 on the day of the weddingrdquo Patil also alleged that Jadhavrsquos wife was equally involved but her name has not been included in the FIRPolice versionA police officerA police officer investigating the case said ldquoWe acted immediately FIRs have been registered under Sections 1434 35 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and Sections 9 10 11 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 The case has been registered against Mangesh Laxman Gadekar Pravin Vijay Kanse Aniket Babaji Yewle Vishal Baban Gosawi Vishal Bansi Shinde Navnath Kerubahu Jadhav Ganesh Tukaram Tajne Rohit Shivaji Yewle Sanjay Laxman Jadhav and the father as well as stepmother of the girlrdquo Three vehicles used to transport the girl were seized ldquoWersquove collected strong evidence for a watertight chargesheet Eight arrests have been made so far We are working to trace the absconding middleman and the girlrsquos parentsrdquo the officer saidPilanze Khurd village in Bhiwandi taluka Thane district where the child marriage took place PicsSatej ShindeActivist SpeaksVivek PanditThe chairperson of the Tribal Development Review CommitteeThe girl belonged to the Katkari community mdash ldquoone of the most underprivileged primitive tribes in the countryrdquo ldquoThey are the most backward in terms of socioeconomic and health indicators Their extreme poverty leads them into different kinds of bondagerdquo Pandit said Calling the act ldquohuman traffickingrdquo Pandit added ldquoThis wasnrsquot a marriage mdash it was a sale The groom wanted a fulltime labourer he could also sexually abuserdquo He pointed out that cases of child marriage are rampant in tribal belts especially in Wada taluka of Palghar and Bhiwandi ldquoMost victims are Katkari girlsrdquo he said ldquoI donrsquot understand why her parents havenrsquot been arrested Itrsquos a complete failure of the system Strong deterrent action is needed mdash and the parents must be held accountable immediatelyrdquo he addedatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params