The books that were set on fire on Monday. (MU Chisti)

Cooch Behar, April 30: A 15-year-old girl stood up against her family members who wanted to marry her off to a man twice her age and discontinue her studies.

The incident came to light after the girl’s mother and grandmother thrashed her and burnt her books this morning.

Seema Sarkar’s relatives had fixed her marriage to a 30-year-old man without her consent. “I tried to dissuade them from looking for a groom. But they did not relent,” said the Class IX student of Khapaidanga Joykanta High School.

“I left my home yesterday and went to an aunt’s house nearby because I thought they would force me to marry,” said Seema, a resident of Vivekanandapally, 7km from here.

When the girl told her aunt about her family’s decision, the woman escorted her back to the house this morning.

“Seeing me at the doorstep, my mother and grandmother started hurling abuses at me. When my aunt tried to reason with them, they gave me a good thrashing,” Seema said.

She added that her mother Manjuri and grandmother Usha Biswas set her school books on fire.

As the news spread, Rabindranath Ghosh, the Cooch Behar district Trinamul Congress president and the MLA of Natabari, reached the spot.

When Ghosh tried to talk to Manjuri and Usha, they asked him not to interfere in their “family affair”. “Seema is a minor. What her guardians were doing is a crime. I have assured them that I will bear the cost of the girl’s education till she turns 18,” he said.

Seema’s relatives allegedly verbally abused the journalists who had reached the spot.

“My granddaughter has become too intelligent and she is objecting to our decisions. We often find youths outside our house saying they would abduct her. We had fixed the marriage to end such problems,” said Usha.

The girl’s father stays in Jalpaiguri for work.

District magistrate M.K. Gandhi said: “The Cooch Behar I BDO has been asked to submit a report.” Ghosh gave Rs 1,000 to Seema to buy books.