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Amid outrage over the menace of forcing minor Muslim girls into wedlock, police have arrested three persons, including the mother of a United Arab Emirates national, who forcibly married a minor girl in Kozhikode, Kerala.
The police arrested Sulaika, mother of the UAE national Jasim Mohammed Abdul Kareem, her second husband Munir and a relative Abu on Wednesday and cases against them were registered under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act-2006, Juvenile Justice Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Malappuram police had registered cases against ten persons including Jasim. The case was later transferred to Chemmangad police in Kozhikode district, where the offence was further probed.
The plight of the 17-year-old girl came to light after she approached the child welfare committee complaining that authorities at the orphanage, where she was staying, forced her to marry Jasim, who hails from Ras al-Khaimah, on June 13. Jasim, who sexually abused the girl at various places in Kerala returned to his country on July 1.
The girl received a telephone call from her husband on August 6 to hear from him that he had divorced her. Police action came in the wake of a directive by the state human rights commission, which had directed the state police chief and social justice department to probe the matter and submit a report.
The girl had also sent her complaint to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Kerala Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran and Union Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed.
Expressing outrage over the minor's plight, women activists, political leaders and non-government organisation in Kerala have demanded a legislation to check the social menace of 'Arabi Kalyanam' (Arab wedding), in which minor Muslim girls are forced into marriage with Arab nationals.
Image: Representation picture