Assam: Police arrest 87 in massive crackdown on child marriage in Bongaigaon district

In a major crackdown against child marriages across the state, Bongaigaon Police arrested 87 accused in 140 registered cases under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and POCSO act, a senior police official said.

The police operation is being carried out across Assam following Chief Minister Himanto Biswa Sarma's order to launch a campaign against child marriage. 

"As per the orders of the Chief Minister and DGP of Assam, the investigation of all the cases related to child marriage has been expedited and a total of 87 accused persons were arrested, including grooms, family members, and middlemen,” said Superintendent of Police Bongaigaon, Swapnaneel Deka.

The cases were registered under the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 and The protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012.

Meanwhile, a total of 2,044 arrests have been made in connection to cases pertaining to child marriage in Assam as of February 3, informed Director General of Police (DGP) G P Singh.

“The chief minister had received information about child marriage being rampant in several parts of the state, after which he ordered an inquiry. As per the directive, data from three years pertaining to child marriage cases were accessed,” GP Singh added. 

"Following this, all the district SPs were told to get in touch with respective village defence parties, Gaon Buras, chiefs of various communities, and prominent people of various communities, and on the basis of that we have observed that there are instances of child marriage in various parts of the state," he said.

He further said that during the last two days, 4074 cases were registered across different districts of Assam. 

''From yesterday, we started taking action on the basis of FIRs that were registered in different districts, and till 3 pm we have arrested 2044 people from different districts in the state," he added.

''The highest arrests were made in Biswanath, Dhubri, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, and Hojai,'' he further informed.

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