*Husband arrested after minor tribal girl dies during pregnancy in Palghar*

  PALGHAR: The Mokhada police in Palghar District have arrested the husband of a minor girl from a tribal community who died during pregnancy earlier this month.

The police have also booked 10 others for performing the 16-year-old girl's marriage in contravention of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

Police sources said that the girl from the Karkari community, who lived in Moranda village of Mokhada taluka, had an affair with 21-year-old Jayesh Ramdas Misal, a resident of Nehale in Jawhar Taluka, for around two years. She became pregnant during this time and her family arranged her marriage with the boy, which was solemnised on March 29 this year.

The minor girl died on June 6 at Rural Hospital in Mokhada because of pregnancy-related complications. The post-mortem of the deceased was conducted, and the foetus was sent for DNA fingerprinting. Initially, an accidental death report was registered but after an investigation, a FIR was registered on June 22 against the husband and 10 others who were involved in solemnising the underage girl's marriage.

The police have now arrested the husband and booked the parents of both the boy and the girl, the brother-in-law of the girl, the decorator, the caterer, the priest, and two others who were associated with the solemnisation of the marriage.

They have been booked under sections 376 (2) n (commitment of rape repeatedly on the same women) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 and 8 of the POCSO Act, as well as sections 9, 10 and 11 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

Marriages of minors are common among some tribal communities of Palghar district. In fact, most teenagers start living together soon after attending puberty. Although the police have been trying to create awareness about the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, the situation is yet to improve.

A medical officer said that as the underaged couples are not physically developed, their babies are often underweight, and this leads to malnourishment - a common health concern among the tribal children of the area.