Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, stated that girls from underprivileged households in Maharashtra are sold for Rs.1-2 lakh to Rajasthan and Gujarat for marriage. In a written response to MLC Mahadev Jankar's query in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, he stated that according to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, about 24 offenses involving kidnapping women for marriage were filed in 2023.
In 2021, 448 people were arrested for offenses related to kidnapping women for marriage. He further stated that the accused were arrested under strict provisions such as 366 of the IPC, the Prevention of Child Marriage Act of 2006, and the Prevention of Child Sexual Offenses Act of 2012. Additionally, in response to
Shiv Sena MLCs Vilas Potnis and Sunil Shinde, Fadnavis noted that 984 rape cases and 6,133 complaints of atrocities against women were filed in Bombay in 2022.
He also said that there will be 1,330 missing underage females in 2022, with police having found 1,097 of them. Similarly, 4,437 women went missing in 2022, with police locating 3,039 of them. Fadnavis announced that a bureau has been established in each zone of Mumbai to combat human trafficking. Apart from that, SOPs have been developed to look for missing persons. Nirbhaya squads are also present at each Police Station to deal with women's abuses.
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