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Updated: Feb 12, 2019 21:16 IST

The timely intervention by villagers prevented a 15-year-old girl from committing suicide by jumping off an overhead water tank to avoid her marriage to a 53-year-old man in Telangana’s Yadadri Bhongir district on Monday.

The incident occurred at Shivalal Thanda hamlet of Alair block. Noticing the girl climbing up the overhead tank, some villagers rushed to her even before she could reach the top and brought her down after pacifying her.

The villagers handed her over to the local Anganwadi teacher Manjula who, in turn, informed the Integrated Child Development Centre (ICDS) project officer Chandrakala and supervisor Uma Rani of the incident. They took her to the police station and lodged a complaint there.

According to Alair police, the girl, a class 10 student at a government school at Motakonduru, had been staying with her uncle Bhaskar for the last two years. Her parents died of illness after marrying off their first three daughters. For the last few months, her uncle Bhaskar had been pressuring her to marry 53-year-old Yadaiah of the same village. Yadaiah already has a wife and two children.

The girl was also not being allowed to attend school for the last few days. “Unable to bear the harassment, she escaped from the house and went to her relatives at Shivala Thanda on Monday where she attempted suicide,” Alair sub-inspector Venkat Reddy said.

The police had filed a case against Bhaskar and his wife under the Prevention of Child Marriage Act.

Child Rights Association president P Achyuta Rao demanded stern action against the girl’s uncle for forcing her to marry an aged man who was already married.

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