Last month in Madhya Pradesh, non-government organisation Childline rescued a minor girl from a train suspecting abduction, which turned out to be an elopement (elopement of a minor girl is legally considered kidnapping by the person she eloped with, if the person is major).
Later, investigation and medical reports revealed she was two months’ pregnant. Her mother told Rashtra Jyoti that she became a target of the accused, who is from the Muslim community, for conversion to Islam through nikah.
Interrogation revealed that the accused had been pursing her for a year, and the girl was motivated towards this relationship by his mother. He has been arrested by the police.
The FIR filed after girl went missing
On 14 November 2022, the victim’s mother Asha Dongre registered a case of abduction at Nishatpura police station in Bhopal (number 223/22).
Asha’s statement in the FIR says that she works at a private hospital and when she is at work, her five children stay back home. On 13 November, she left for work around eight in the night. When she returned home the next morning, her daughter Varsha (name changed) was not at home. She looked around the colony but she was nowhere.
After she failed to locate Varsha, this report was registered.
Read her statement below from the FIR, which has been accessed by Rashtra Jyoti.
The Case
As per reports, the girl is 15 while the accused is 17, also a minor. After eloping, they planned to go to Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh by train but they mistakenly boarded a wrong train. The train stopped in Vidisha, where the railway police and Childline members caught them.
The accused from there was sent to a juvenile home while the girl was sent to the Bal Kalyan Samiti (a government-affiliated child care home), Prem Singh, who works with Vidisha Childline, told the media.
What the victim told the Childline counsellor, Deepa Sharma
This correspondent spoke to Singh, who shared with Rashtra Jyoti what the victim told the Childline counsellor Deepa Sharma in his presence:
-That they had known each other for one year. The mother of the accused boy told the girl that ever since she entered the life of her son, he has become a good boy. Earlier he was addicted to drugs. She asked the girl to marry her son so that he leaves all his bad habits. She was constantly forcing the girl to marry her son
-The boy told the girl that to marry her, he will convert to Hinduism. Even the mother of that boy told the minor that she will get her son to duly convert to Hinduism after marriage.
-The relatives of this boy lived in Sagar, and so they were going to Sagar for marriage. They first boarded a train from Bhopal to Itarsi from where they boarded another train. On reaching Vidisha, they found it was the wrong train. It was then that the railway police started interrogating them and the Childline volunteers were also informed
Deepa Sharma told Dainik Bhaskar that the accused boy runs an autorickshaw and has been booked by police in the past for theft.
The minor told Deepa that her mother works at a hospital and mostly does night shifts. When she used to go to work, the boy visited her at her house. Her sister never told her mother about the boy. They entered into a physical relationship.
What the mother of the victim told Rashtra Jyoti
This correspondent called up the victim’s mother on 17 November, the same day she recorded her statement in front of the magistrate.
Asha told this correspondent over the phone that her daughter left home around 5 in the morning on 14 November. When she reached home from the hospital, she looked for all her children, but failed to find Varsha.
Around 11:30 am, she received a call from a boy named Murad Khan (name changed, surname retained) who said that Varsha was with him. Murad lives in the same colony as Asha.
While telling about Murad, Asha said that in the Karond and Nishatpura area where she lives, only 10 percent of the population is Hindu while the rest is Muslim.
She said, “I never imagined that this will happen in my house. I always trusted my children.”
Asked about her husband, she said that she lives with her children and has been separated from her husband for several years. There was no one to stay back home in the night if she was away.
Her eldest daughter is 21 years old while Varsha is around 14. The fact that she is now pregnant is a cause of huge worry for her.
Asked about the school and education of her daughters, she said that post lockdown, they have stopped going to the school. Asha blamed herself for this, saying, “I failed to provide them with education and now one of my daughters has landed into this big trouble.”
She said that she earns only Rs 7000 a month, which is not enough in a city like Bhopal.
Asha says she has four daughters and a son. Her son lives with his father while the daughters live with Asha.
She said that Varsha told the police that she wanted to go with her mother. “She did not elope with him. He abducted her. She knew nothing,” she said.
This correspondent again called Asha on 6 December 2022. She said that the accused had been arrested by the police but her problems have not ended with his arrest.
She said that the Investigating Officer, Monika, reached the Magistrate to seek permission for the abortion of the minor girl. The judge, also a woman, declined the request.
Officer Monica told Asha that they will now ask the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to make the request.
Listen to this conversation between this correspondent and Asha:
This correspondent called Asha again on 18 December. She said that the pregnancy of her daughter was terminated on 15 December. The court directed for medical cleansing and disallowed the giving of pills.
She said, “Madam I will not take my case back against the boy. No matter how long my daughter stays at home, I will happily keep her with me. I don’t care if any boy will ever marry her. I want my daughter to be safe.”
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