Ten members of the wedding party were also arrested.

A 40-year-old groom, Bhanu Shukla, and over ten members of his wedding party have landed in jail for trying to marry a 12-year-old girl in India.

The incident took place in the Ghat Bijri village in the state of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.

The police arrived at the wedding venue after some locals quietly informed the district probation officer Shakti Tripathi. The marriage rituals were stopped and the groom and the his party were taken to the police station.

Tripathi said that police are looking into the incident as a possible instance of human trafficking since the groom and his party were from the Sitapur district, which is close to the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border.

The girl belongs to a tribal community and her family was given 100,000 rupees (Dh5,000) for the wedding. The groom belongs to the Brahmin community and 'marrying' a tribal girl is unusual.

Tripathi said that the matter would be thoroughly investigated and stern action would be taken against the offenders.