Woman ‘social worker' among 4 held on charge of abetting Jalgaon farmer's suicide
The police are also investigating a suspected human trafficking and underage marriage angle amid claims that the farmer's daughter, who was seventeen-and-half-year-old in Jan this year when she left home in search of a job in Nashik with the social worker, was married off to a man from a family in Kolhapur.
Her in-laws were putting pressure on the farmer and his family to send her back to Kolhapur as they had paid Rs 1.90 lakh and some gold to solemnise the marriage. Her father ended life because of the stress caused by these events, her brother stated in a police complaint.
A senior police officer associated with the investigation said the woman, who turned major in May this year, was reported missing. "The police have traced her to Parbhani in Marathwada but are yet to secure her custody and bring her back to Jalgaon," he said.
Senior inspector Rajendra Gunjal of the Ramanand Nagar police in Jalgaon told TOI, "The four people arrested in the suicide abetment case are the woman's 'husband', his cousin, both from Kolhapur, another relative and the social worker, who are from Jalgaon. A search is ongoing for the woman's aunt who accompanied the social worker to Kolhapur to get the girl married off to the family there by claiming that the girl's parents had passed away.
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Jalgaon superintendent of police MCV Maheshwar Reddy on Monday said, "A counter-complaint of cheating has been lodged by the Kolhapur family in which the girl, her aunt and the social worker are among the five people named. The Kolhapur family has claimed in this complaint that the girl, her aunt, the social worker, and two others introduced her as an orphan, and claimed they were seeking a groom for her."
The complaint further stated that after the Kolhapur family agreed, the woman's relatives demanded Rs2 lakh for the marriage, solemnised on Feb 3, and the Kolhapur family provided 40 gram of gold jewellery, including various ornaments. The complainant alleges that the woman visited Jalgaon and left the gold jewellery at her aunt's place before returning home. In April, she went to Jalgaon and subsequently refused to return, the police said.
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