A 2 year old girl was married off along side with 4 young girls by their fathers in secret wedding ceremony

Indian police have arrested three men for marrying off their daughters, one of which was aged only two, during a secret ceremony last month.

The four girls – all aged between two and 12 – were secretly married off to boys their age in a ceremony in Gajuna village of Bhilwara district in Rajasthan on February 23.

The weddings were planned for February 25 but in fear of being caught by police one of the fathers brought the wedding forward by two days.

Police say the wedding ceremony (pictured) saw four girls aged between two and 12 married off to boys their age. When a journalist learnt of it he went undercover disguising himself as a villager and secretly captured the ceremonies on his mobile phone.

He later told police about it and they arrested a 37-year-old and two men aged

The father of the fourth girl had died a year earlier and so no-one from her family was arrested.

Child brides traditionally don’t live with their husbands until after puberty and the four are now staying with their mothers while police monitor them.

Surendra Kumar Mishra, station in-charge of Bhilwada, said: ‘We ran to arrest the men involved as we heard about it, but they had gone missing. We could only get them after four days.’

He said the police had registered complaints against the three men – required under Indian law before an investigation can begin – and had arrested them under the Child Marriage Act.

‘The maximum punishment they might have to serve is a fine of 100,000 Indian Rupees (£1,000) and three to four years in prison.’

Child rights activist Kriti Bharti, who spearheads child marriage annulment cases, is now looking to help the four get their marriages annulled.

She said: ‘While a police case has been registered against the family we are now looking the remedial approach.

‘We will definitely work for the annulment of all the four marriages that took place.’