Pune: The Pune police has arrested seven persons for allegedly forcing a 19-year-old girl to marry a zilla parishad (ZP) school teacher of Osmanabad who is married and has a fourteen-year-old daughter.
According to Ajay Chandkhede, police inspector, Sangvi, the girl, a student of F.Y.B.Com, approached them on April 20. Investigation revealed that the teacher, Uttam Vithal Kale, was married for the past 15 years and had a daughter. However, he wanted a son and approached Dayanand Gaikwad, who he knew was poor.
PI Chandkhede said, “Mr Kale promised Mr Gaikwad that he would buy the latter a flat in Pune and offered Mr Gaikwad a sum of Rs 5 lakh to repay the loan if Mr Gaikwad gave his daughter’s hand in marriage to Mr Kale.”
Unable to resist the offer, Mr Gaikwad forced his daughter to marry Mr Kale on March 30 and sent her to the latter’s house in Terkhed. The girl managed to send a video of her ordeal to police officials in Osmanabad after which she was freed from Mr Kale’s clutches and sent back to her maiden home.
However, her parents and relatives started forcing her to return to Mr Kale’s house after which, she approached the police on April 20 when her parents had gone to Mumbai for some work.
Finally, on Monday, the police arrested the girl’s parents, two uncles and an aunt, the mediator who made the marriage happen, and Mr Kale.
PI Chandkhede said, “We have invoked Indian Penal Code sections 366 (kidnapping), 384 (extortion), 385 (threatening for extortion), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (hurting), 504 (provoking to breach peace), 506 (intimidation), and 34 (crime done with common intention).”
