Maneka seeks Sushma’s help to rescue Hyderabad teenager sold to Omani Sheikh

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said that she would request Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to rescue the 16-year-old girl, who had been married to an Omani sheikh in sixties, on Thursday.

The Women and Child Development minister has termed the incident, ‘deeply disturbing.’

Gandhi, took the microblogging site after media reported of a schoolgirl in Hyderabad was forced to marry a 65-year-old Omani sheikh.

She tweeted, ‘Have asked the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, to investigate the case and identify the person who forced this illegal marriage.”

Gandhi also wrote on Tweeter, “I would request @SushmaSwaraj to intervene and bring the girl back to India from Oman.”

The Women and Child Development minister has directed the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to contact the victim’s family.

According to media reports, parents of the victims on Wednesday reported to the Hyderabad police that their daughter was forced to marry a 65-year-old sheikh from Oman three months back.

The victim’s mother told the police that her daughter called them from Muscat asking them to rescue her or she would commit suicide.

Parent’s also told the police that the victim’s aunt took Rs 5 lakh money from the Sheikh to facilitate the marriage.