The vice president of the central commitee of the All Assam Minorities Students' Union (AAMSU), Anarul Islam, has been arrested from Lakhimpur in a child marriage case.
According to sources, Islam was arrested for allegedly marrying a 16-year-old minor girl.
Ironically, the AAMSU had supported the Assam chief minister's move to eradicate cases of child marriage in Assam saying that the CM should take more strict measures to curb the same.
A top leader of the AAMU had also recently said that the group has been operating against child marriage cases in the state since 2017. He also claimed that the union was successful in stopping around 3,500 child marriages.
Earlier today, Assam Police spokesperson Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan informed that a total of 2,170 were arrested in connection to cases pertaining to child marriage in the state.
"The figures of the arrests in Child Marriage cases have risen. Till this morning, the police had arrested 2,170 persons across the state and it will increase further," Bhuyan told reporters.
The arrests comes post the state Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the state government’s tough stance against child marriage cases in the state.
CM Sarma said that individuals who married girls below 14 years of age will be booked under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and cases under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 will be registered against those who have married girls in the 14-18 age group.
“Arrests will go on as long as the menace that this child marriage continues to persist in Assam. Anyone indulging in child marriage will be straightaway jailed,” the chief minister said.
“We will work towards ridding Assam of child marriages by 2026. In the last nine days, over five thousand cases of child marriages have come to the fore,” he added.
