.. At 19 She marries a boy of 12 ..

World . India . JABALPUR: SP Jhabua, Surendra Pal Singh, had good reasons to feel surprised when a newly married couple walked into his office on Tuesday morning. While the girl was 19, the groom was a school lad, barely 12 years of age.

The duo, it was mostly the wife who did the talking, complained of harassment by parents who wanted them to split. And all this while the kid groom curiously surveyed the surroundings and nodded his head vigorously, the officer said.

Singh is now in a bind. Explaining the legal age-limit to the lovelorn in the tribal belt is a useless exercise, he told TOI. So he resorted to the next option - calling parents for counselling.

 Boys and girls among MP tribes enjoy freedom and elope before marriage with a chosen partner. And this is an accepted tradition, which incidentally has the sanction of the state government.

Before elopement, they certainly don't check each other's birth certificates, she said so why this hullaballoo?

Sparks are flying because parents of the groom are set to play proverbial spoilsport, says Jabalpur SP Harinarain Chari Mishra. Conceding there has been a spurt in cases where brides are eloping with younger grooms, he claimed in almost all cases, girls face stiff resistance from in-laws. TOI news .

SP Jabalpur recounts another such incident where a minor boy was taken to Delhi by a 23-year-old bride. "On a complaint of abduction, police brought him back to Jabalpur.

When confronting the father the boy turned mutinous. His wife had got him admitted to an English medium school in Delhi and he no longer wanted to attend a pathashala in his home town."