‘Misled teens mistake attraction for love’

As per the prosecution, the petitioner kidnapped a 17-year-old-girl in the pretext of marrying her over love affair and had physical relationship with her. Based on a complaint, the petitioner was arrested and remanded to judicial custody. 

While the petitioner claimed that he was innocent and the victim girl voluntarily eloped with him, the government advocate submitted that the petitioner had physical relationship with the minor girl and that investigation was pending. 

However, Justice S Vaidyanathan on granting bail on the basis that the police cannot file the chargesheet in another six days and that he had been in custody for 84 days, said, “Ultimately, it is not only the girl who is victimised, equally the boy with whom she elopes becomes a victim in the eye of law. In the case on hand, the boy took the victim girl with him only on her compulsion and he is now behind bars.” 

Also, observing that everyone thinks that the marriageable age of the girl should be increased to 21 years and that of the boy to 25 years, the judge noted that if such kind of activities persist, no purpose will be served even if the age limit for marriage is increased. 

Justice Vaidyanathan, blaming movies for projecting infatuation in the teenage as love, said the same gets reflected among children and they try imitate the same in reality. 

He also noted that even if the minor girl is separated from her boyfriend and returns home, there is every possibility of her being threatened by her boyfriend, by way of MMS and photographs, as boys tend to create record for the purpose of threatening girls. 

He also called on the parents to spend more time with children, as spending time with the children is more important than spending money on children.