Kerala 15YO Girl's Aadhaar Forged For Marriage With 40YO Man; Two Held

A 15-year-old tribal girl's date of birth was changed in her Aadhaar card to get her married to a 40-year-old upper-caste man in Kalpetta of Kerala's Wayanad district. The Special Mobile Squad (SMS) wing of the police, for cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, arrested the marriage broker KC Sujithkumar on September 6. Through him, the police were reportedly led to a racket that wooed several tribal families into marrying off minor girls. The girl's husband was arrested on September 8.

Tribal Girl Saved From Underage Marriage Racket

Police said that Sujith belongs to an upper-caste community from Kozhikode. He married the tribal girl in January 2024, at a prominent temple in Vadakara. The girl's parents knew nothing about the broker, Sunilkumar, except his phone number. A group from their tribal clan also attended the wedding.

The police tracked Sunilkumar first after receiving a tip-off on the illegal marriage. He was arrested and a racket was busted by a team led by SMS Deputy Superintendent of Police, M M Abdul Karim. It was he who orchestrated the illegal corrections in her identity card for a fee of ₹70,000.

Sunilkumar had allegedly assured both the families by saying that there would not be any legal issues. The authorities found that he had been engaged in conducting many such illegal marriages in the past and also recovered many photographs of underage tribal girls from his mobile phone.

DySP Karim told the outlet that the investigation is on to other members of the racket operating across several districts in Kerala. "The agents are misleading the tribal parents by giving them money and offering their daughter a better life," he said, adding that many grooms are unaware of the girls' age.

A police official said that a case under sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, Child Marriage Prohibition Act and SC/ST Act have been registered. The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Sulthan Bathery remanded both the accused in judicial custody.