An accused was sentenced to one year and three months imprisonment on Friday for the crime of child marriage and polygamy with a fifteen-year-old girl. Similarly, the accused was fined Rs 10,000 for polygamy and Rs 3,000 for child marriage. In addition, it was decided that the accused should deposit Rs. 400 to the relief fund for victims of criminal offenses. The eldest wife, 21-year-old Menukakumari Chaudhary, filed a complaint at the local police office in Kanchanura, saying that the accused husband had married the 15-year-old girl and brought her into the house on November 1. Police arrested the accused on January 25 and registered a complaint.
The district court sent the girl to Rajviraj Jail for remand and Dhami on the 17th of January. Apart from this case of child marriage related to polygamy, two other child marriage
complaints have been registered in the district court in the financial year 2079-80. One complaint of child marriage has been registered from Paramadesh, while another case of child marriage has been registered in the police report after the armed police detained a newly married couple who were going to India.
The girl and three other Indian citizens were arrested on the 17th of January when the girl of Mahadeva rural municipality-1 was being taken to India for marriage. According to the police, the arrested are Mo Rafiq Khar, Noor Jahan, and Gulab Jilani who are from Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Khar and Jahan brought 41-year-old Jilani to Nepal and got married to a 17-year-old girl while they were on their way to India. The Armed Police Force Nepal Border Out Post Banainia team arrested them. After being handed over to the district police office by the armed police team, during the investigation, it was revealed that they had committed child marriage, and they were prosecuted for the crime of child marriage.
In Saptari, where there is a large number of child marriages, every year from 2075 to 2078, only one complaint has been registered and dismissed. According to court statistics, three complaints were registered in the year 2078/79, and two cases of child marriage are currently pending.
Human rights activists say that due to a lack of
knowledge about poor economic conditions, illiteracy and the problems caused by child marriage, children in rural areas are getting married before they are old enough. According to Mira Gurung, a member of Mechi Mahakali Buhari United Voice, child marriage, which is the most common case in various statistics and practices, is the least registered.
