Kalpetta: The Special Mobile Squad (SMS) wing of police here arrested two men for tampering with the date of birth in the aadhaar card of a minor tribal girl to evade legal hurdles of child marriage. The accused are Sujith, the husband of the minor girl and the marriage broker. The 15-year-old girl from a tribal colony in Kalpetta was married off to a 40-year-old man from Puthiyappu near Vadakara. The police team not only released the girl but also arrested the husband.  

By arresting the broker, the police busted a racket engaged in wooing tribal parents to marry off underage tribal girls to men from other parts of the state. The SMS wing of police is specially designated in the state  to investigate cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act

The broker K C Sunilkumar (36) a native of Achooranam near Vythiri was arrested by the police team headed by SMSM DySP M M Abdul Karim on Friday night. Puthiyappu Kuyyadiyil house Sujith (40), husband of the child was arrested on Sunday from his home at Vadakara in Kozhikode. 

According to police, the first accused Sujith, an upper caste youth from Puthiyoppu, married the girl in January 2024 at a prominent temple in Vadakara. The second accused the middleman Sunil Kumar had allegedly cheated the family of both the girl and the man, by saying that there would not be any legal issues and also masterminded the illegal corrections in the documents to facilitate the marriage.

Sunil Kumar had received Rs 70,000 as a commission for facilitating the marriage.  An investigation by the police also proved that Sunilkumar had been engaged in conducting many such marriages in the past and also recovered many photographs of tribal girls from his mobile phone. 

DySP Abdul Karim told Onmanorama that the investigation is on to other members of the racket, operating in other districts of Kozhikode and Kannur and their links to Wayanad. The agents are misleading the tribal parents by giving them money and offering their daughter a better life, he said, adding that in many cases the bridegrooms might not be aware of the age factor which the agents hide by effecting illegal modification in the documents. 

The police tracked the broker Sunilkumar first after receiving a tip-off on the illegal marriage. The poor tribal parents only possessed the mobile number of the agent. Even the correct name and place of the agent were not known to them. A group from the tribal clan had also accompanied the bride and groom to Vadakara and a feast also was held after the marriage. 

“Parents of both the 'husband'  and the minor girl are also involved in the crime. So, they will have to undergo the legal procedures,”  said a police official. Police had slapped sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, Child Marriage Prohibition Act and SC/ST Act against the accused. 

The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Sulthan Bathery remanded both the accused in judicial custody.