New Delhi:

A youth was arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district under the anti-conversion law for allegedly kidnapping and forcibly marrying a minor, police said on Wednesday.

A case of kidnapping along with provisions of the recently enacted anti-conversion law has been lodged against the man while further sections of law, if required, will be added after the girl’s statement, police said.

Police are also searching for the person who facilitated the nikah ceremony.

Tabarak Khan, a native of Samastipur district in Bihar and living in a rented house in Shahpur police station area, kidnapped the 14-year-old girl living in the neighbourhood and forcibly married her on March 1.

He issued threats to her life and warned against telling anyone about the marriage and sent her back to her home the same day.

The girl’s mother told police that the accused had often been teasing her daughter. Recently, the mother found a document in Urdu from her daughter’s school bag and after inquiring came to know that it was a marriage certificate (nikahnama).

The girl, who is a Class 6 student, had not told anyone about the marriage apparently out of fear. The girl’s family is very poor and they work as labourers, police said.

“On the complaint of the girl’s mother, an FIR under sections of kidnapping and UP Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 was lodged on Sunday and the accused was arrested on Tuesday,” SHO of Shahpur police station S K Singh said.

The medical report is awaited and other sections of the law would be added after the statement of the girl in court, he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)