The Kumbh Mela viral girl is pregnant and is therefore unfit to travel to appear before them immediately, her husband Farman reportedly informed the Madhya Pradesh Police.
The parents of the girl, who hails from a Scheduled Tribe family, had filed a complaint against her husband with the Mandleshwar DSP in Madhya Pradesh, alleging that he had misled their minor daughter into marriage. The police had instructed the couple to appear in person regarding this complaint. It was in response to this that Farman stated that his wife is pregnant and cannot travel, Manorama Online said in a report. The information was conveyed to a female SI in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh.
The Kerala High Court has stayed the arrest of the girl and her husband, Farman, in the case until May 20. A team comprising a Circle Inspector, a female Sub-Inspector, and two constables from the Maheshwar Police Station in Madhya Pradesh arrived in Kochi a few days ago in the hope of speaking to the couple.
The girl had approached the Thampanoor police on March 11, complaining that her father was forcibly trying to take her back to their hometown in order to get her married to someone else. The girl was firm in her stance of wanting to be with Farman.
Upon verifying that she was 18 years and three months old, she was allowed to leave according to her wishes. On March 11, with the certificates provided by the Madhya Pradesh government, the marriage was registered in the Poovar Panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram. However, after the incident blew up, the Madhya Pradesh government cancelled the birth certificate. A case was registered against the man who married her under the POCSO Act, stating that she was underage for marriage.
The girl, who hails from the Pardhi tribal community and became an overnight internet sensation during the Kumbh Mela, married Farman Khan at the Nainar Temple in Thiruvananthapuram on March 11.
Several political leaders, including Kerala Education Minister V. Sivankutty, CPI(M) State Secretary M.V. Govindan, and Rajya Sabha MP A.A. Rahim, attended the inter-religious marriage and issued statements saying it reflected Kerala’s social harmony. The couple had earlier approached the Thampanoor police station in the state capital, claiming that the girl’s family would not accept the relationship and was trying to take her back home against her will. They also maintained that both were adults.
