Minor told to return to don ‘husband’

Kahalgaon: A 15-year-old girl who was abducted and forcefully married off to Pappu Singh, a goon, is now being threatened to return to her “husband”. Pappu holds sway in the entire stretch of the river Garua in Kahalgaon sub-division, from where his men illegally lift sand.

The girl, a native of Purnea, was brought up by her maternal uncles after the death of her mother soon after her birth. On April 18, Pappu abducted her from her uncle’s house in Sanhoula. “Pappu and his associates took my daughter to Lila Mandir, a nearby temple, where he forced my daughter to marry him,” the father said in an FIR lodged with the police. He submitted a photograph in which Pappu is seen in applying vermilion on the girl’s forehead. The photo went viral on social media after which Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manoj Kumar asked Kahalgaon and Sonhoula police stations to arrest Pappu immediately.

But the girl returned to Sonhoula on May 7.The police conducted a medical examination and recorded her statement under Section 164 of CrPC before the judicial magistrate in Bhagalpur court on May 9.

The girl said she was abducted at gunpoint and forcibly married, after which Pappu took her by train to Ranchi. “He hired a rented house there and forcefully established physical relations with me,” the girl said in her statement. “But because I used to weep continuously, he dropped me home. His wife Buna Devi was constantly calling him over phone and pressuring him to return me.”

Police sources said Buna was the wife of a man Pappu killed. He then forcefully took her to stay with him.

Even after the girl’s return, her family members said Pappu’s goons keep threatening her to return to him. “We are doomed,” one of them said.

Bhagalpur SSP Ashish Bharati said Sonhoula police was asked to conduct raids and arrest Pappu and his associates. “Pappu is wanted in several heinous crimes apart from this case,” Bharati said.

“After Nand Kishore Singh, a gangster in the area, Rishi Singh held sway of the gang but he was soon sent to jail after which Pappu became the boss. He controls illegal sand excavations even though he is absconding,” said sources at Sonhaula.

Sonhoula police station house officer (SHO) Niraj Kumar Singh said the goons will be arrested soon, as the police are using scientific means to locate them.

Courtesy: The Telegraph