Crackdown on child marriages: 2,170 arrested in Assam, cases lodged under POCSO

The police have registered 4,004 cases of child marriage in the last 10 days since the state Cabinet resolved on January 23 to take action. Over 2,170 people have been arrested so far following the probe against the social evil practice in the state.

Assam:Referring to the crackdown against child marriages in the state, Assam Police spokesperson and IG (law and order) Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan on Saturday informed that 2,170 people have been arrested so far. According to Bhuyan, the number of arrests is likely to go up in the course of the day. This comes after the state Cabinet resolved on January 23 to take action against incidents of child marriage in the state.

"The figures of the arrests in Child Marriage cases have risen. Till this morning, the police had arrested 2,170 persons across the state and it will increase further," Inspector General of Police Bhuyan told the media. As per details provided by Director General of Assam Police (DGP) GP Singh, about 4,074 cases related to child marriage have been registered at different police stations across the state.

Among the arrested individuals, 52 were priests and Qazis involved in child marriages, added the DGP. He further said that the maximum number of people have been arrested from Dhubri, Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Vishwanath districts. DGP Singh informed that the Assam Police were instructed to carry out intensive searches based on inputs from various sources about the prevalence of child marriages in the state.

"About two months ago, CM Sarma had told police that he had got inputs that child marriages were rampant in various parts of the state and directed Police to carry out a probe. After the directions from the CM, 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. On the basis of that we have found instances of child marriage in various parts of the state," DGP Singh said adding that the collected data dated from 2020, 2021, and 2022.

The CM informed that the crackdown against child marriages in the state would continue in the coming days. Talking about the nature of the cases registered, the DGP informed that most of the cases have been registered under different provisions of the POCSO Act and IPC sections. The arrested persons will be produced before the court and action will be taken as per the law, he added.