Ex-Panchayat president kidnaps minor in bid to marry, girl rescued

The child line officials rescued the daughter and her mother on Sunday while the former panchayat president is still at large. It is said that Periyannan (52), a two-time president of Komangalam panchayat near Viralimalai in Pudukkottai had planned to marry for the second time after his wife passed away two years back. Pariyannan decided to marry the 16-year-old girl and offered Rs 1 lakh to the parents of the minor girl. The former panchayat leader fixed the marriage in the Tamil month of Aippasi (second week of October). A word about the marriage was spread across the village and soon the information reached social activists who passed on the information to social welfare officers and childline.

Sensing that the information was given to the Childline and the Social welfare officials, Periyannan had reportedly kidnapped the minor girl and her mother. However, the child line officials traced that the girl and her mother were lodged in a house of Periyannan’s relative at Thennampadi village near Viralimalai.

Still, the child line official Jacquilin and the Social Welfare Officer Lalitha along with the police officers went to the house to rescue the daughter-mother duo. On information about the officials arriving to the house, Pariyannan escaped from the spot. Both the mother and daughter were rescued and kept under the care of the Child Line. They would be produced before the Child Welfare Committee on Monday. A case has been registered against the ex- president under various IPC sections including POCSO act and police have established a hunt for him.