Hyderabad: Two girls from Hayatnagar whose marriages were stopped due to their under-age have proved their mettle in this year's Intermediate examination.

K. Sandhya and V. Sandhya who studied in NRI junior college in Vanasthalipuram emerged as the toppers in their college in inter exams. K. Sandhya stood as the topper of the college with 92 per cent of marks in the CEC stream and V. Sandhya got 88 per cent. The duo are same classmates in intermediate as well as in the school. They completed their schooling from St Joseph's school in Turkayamjal, Hayatnagar.

But before that, these girls would never have continued their studies if their parents forced them into marriage. V. Sandhya’s engagement was fixed by her parents to take place on April 3, 2015, the next day she was to appear for a Social Sciences paper in her SSC exams. She was reluctant to enter into the marriage and her school friends alerted teachers, and a child rights organisation intervened to put a stop to the illegal marriage.

V. Sandhya’s interest in studying drove her to write the Paper-2 exam in the same subject. And then she suffered a big shock when two weeks later, her father committed suicide by hanging himself as the neighbours had made fun of him for the marriage fiasco.