Girl Flees Uncle's Home to Escape Child Marriage, Found Pursuing Nursing Course 4 Years Later

A girl who went "missing" from her maternal uncle's house here nearly four years ago has been found by the Delhi Police who said Tuesday that she had left to escape being married off as a minor and is now pursuing a nursing course. Officials said she had left the house in May 2017, when she would be around 16, and the matter was reported at the Shalimar Bagh police station in northwest Delhi where a kidnapping case was registered and an investigation initiated. The police had in 2019 also announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for anybody providing information that helped to locate her, they said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Bhisham Singh said, "Our (Crime Branch) team contacted and examined the relatives, friends and acquaintances of the girl. After analysing Call Detail Records, we found that the girl was somewhere in Bihar." Head Constable Ramdas received an input Monday that the girl was coming to Delhi by a bus and would reach Anand Vihar Inter-state Bus Terminal in the morning, he said. Based on this tip-off, a team was sent to the ISBT and the girl was found, he said.

He said the girl told the police her parents had passed away when she was a child and she and her brother used to live with her maternal uncle in Delhi. "When she was in Class 10, her maternal uncle was forcing her to marry a person of his choice, but she did not want to get married as she was interested in studying further. So she left her maternal uncle's house in 2017 without telling anyone and reached her maternal grandmother's house in Samastipur district of Bihar," he said.

None of her relatives visited her in the Bihar house and her maternal grandmother too did not inform anyone about her being there and supported her in pursuing her studies, according to the DCP. She completed her school education and took admission in a nursing course in Samastipur, the DCP said.

The girl was not aware that an FIR had been lodged in this regard, he said, adding the Crime Branch handed her to the Shalimar Bagh Police Station, where the cases was registered. The police then presented here before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and further action will be taken in the matter on the direction of CWC.

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