Minor married off at MP mass wedding

JABALPUR: A couple who got married under the chief minister's Kanyadan Yojana, a mass wedding ceremony for girls from poor families in Madhya Pradesh, was picked up by police on Sunday after a complaint that the girl was a minor.
They were detained by Haryana police after the girl's father, a labourer in Sonepat, said his daughter was only 14 years old.The mass marriage had taken place in the backward district of Panna on July 2.
A five-member Haryana police team went to the boy's home in Janagpur village in Panna acting on a missing person's complaint. The girl's father said he suspected his daughter might have been lured by the youth after they met in Sonepat where the boy too works.
The girl's family had moved to Haryana from Uttar Pradesh in search of work. The girl's father claimed that the boy was also a minor.
Panna additional superintendent of police Rajesh Singh said the couple had been detained by Haryana police, but added he was not aware if they had got married at government-sponsored Kanyadan Yojana.
Earlier this month, the scheme had been hit by allegations that a pregnancy test had been carried out on brides during a mass marriage event in Shahdol district. The government has denied the allegations.