17-year-old sells his wife for one lakh, lavishly spent the money on food buys smartphone

A 17-year-old in Odisha sold his 26 year old wife for Rs 1.87 lakh to a 55 year old man in Rajasthan where the couple had gone to work.

The police said that after their marriage in July, the minor along with his wife traveled to Rajasthan in August to work in a brick kiln. After a few days of work, the 17-year-old sold his wife to a man from Baran district for Rs 1.87 lakh. “The boy then lavishly spent the money on food and bought himself a smart phone,” they added.

The boy later returned to his village and claimed that his wife had deserted them. The boy’s in-laws lodged a complaint with the Balangir police suspicious of the boy. The police checked his call records to match his statement and located the



girl.

The 26-year-old woman, was rescued by the police from the south-eastern Rajasthan district of Baran which borders Madhya Pradesh, with “great difficulty” as local villagers refused to let the police team take her away saying that they had paid for her.

“We interrogated him and found out that he sold his wife. A team from Balangir went to Rajasthan to trace the woman. However, the locals there did not allow our team to take her back insisting that the woman has been bought for ₹1.8 lakh. We could get her back home with great difficulty,” said  Bulu Munda, inspector in charge of Belpada police station in Balangir district.

The boy was produced before a juvenile court and sent to a correctional home.