Assam government’s crackdown against child marriage restarts, 15 fake Kazis arrested

The second phase of crackdown against child marriage has started in the State as Assam Police intensifice its operations against the offenders. As part of the crackdown, police arrested 15 fake Kazi from Hailakandi district of Southern Assam on September 13.

As per reports, all the accused were apprehended from various locations in the district for their involvement in child marriages. The arrested Kazis have been identified as Aziruddin Laskar, Mufti Abul Hussain, Asadullah Laskar, Kaiser Ahmed, Abdul Jalal Laskar, Sarifuddin Barbhuiya, Farid Uddin Laskar, Saidul Haque, Nurul Haque Laskar, and Abdul Salam Barbhuiya.

Police sources said that several ‘kabul namas’ have been seized for the possessions of the arrested fake Kazis.The arrested Kazis have been sent to two days of Police custody by a local court in Hailakandi. Additional Superintendent of Police Sameer Barua said that the arrested fake Kazis had conducted marriages under the Assam Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act 1935 in different parts of the district keeping the marriage register office in the dark. Many of them were using fake Government emblems or symbols. He also said that the Police had launched the operation after receiving a complaint from the Government register kazi. Operations are on to nab few other fake Kazis in the district.

It may be mentioned that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently announced 2nd phase of massive crackdowns against child marriage would be starting from September 15. He said Police have gathered informations on over 3000 child marriage offenders and they will be behind once the crackdown starts.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also said that by December 2023 the State will witness the end of polygamy. The draft bill to ban polygamy in the State is under preparation and by December, Assam will see the end of polygamy. Meanwhile, the Assam Governor has constituted a committee to draft an appropriate legislation for banning polygamy and other related issues such as tackling inter-religious marriage by fake identity, the role of Kazi in child marriage etc.in the State. Advocate general of Assam Debojit Saikia will be the chairman of the committee and DGP GP Singh, senior additional advocate general Nalin Kolhi, Romen Baruah, secretary judicial department and Biswajit Pegu IAS, secretary home and political department will be its members. The committee will submit its draft legislation within 45 days. The Assam Government is likely to introduce a bill in the State assembly in December to ban polygamy and a legislation to tackle inter-religious marriage by false identity, which is commonly known as ‘love jihad’.