Rishikesh: Four persons have been arrested here for marrying off a minor girl forcibly to a man twice her age, police said on Saturday.
Those arrested include the minor girl’s mother and her husband, Rishikesh police station SHO Ravi Kumar Saini said. Police was informed on Friday that a 14-year-old girl was being married off forcibly to a 28-year-old man at Mansa Devi temple.
When a police team reached the temple it was told that the priest had refused to conduct the marriage ceremony as the bride was a minor.
But the groom-to-be forcibly put a garland around the girl’s neck and drove away with her in a car.
The police team caught the man at Shyampur Fatak here after a chase and rescued the girl, Saini said. The girl’s mother, her husband who hails from Meerut and two other accomplices have been arrested in connection with the incident, the SHO said. —PTI