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The Story of a Minor Girl’s Ordeal, Four Sentenced to 20 Years, Two to 10 Years in Jail for Human Trafficking, Rape

The Story of a Minor Girl’s Ordeal, Four Sentenced to 20 Years, Two to 10 Years in Jail for Human Trafficking, Rape

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Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Aug 1: Four persons were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 each and two others to 10 years in jail and fine of Rs 20,000 each for girl’s trafficking and rape of the minor girl, a victim of blind love for which she had to pay dearly.

Though she was lucky enough to be traced and rescued by the police within four months but during that period she was “sold” a least three times and raped repeatedly by multiple men before she was found at the Kushinagar railway station in Uttarakhand.

The six punished were arrested by the CID six years ago for trafficking the then 15-year-old girl who was taken to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and finally Uttarakhand from where she was rescued. The POCSO court also awarded the victim girl Rs four lakhs compensation now that she had been able to overcome her trauma and returned to academic life. At the age of 22 now, she cleared higher secondary examinations this year and is preparing to enter college life.

As per the proceedings at the Barasat POCSO court in 24 Paragans district in West Bengal, the girl, then 15 years old, had eloped with a boy Rahul, with whom she had struck up a romance after meeting him only on social media platform. On January 7, 2015, she fled home with Rahul on the pretext of going to school in search of a new life. She met the man near Science City in Kolkata and he took her to Babughat, over 10 kilometres away, to “catch a bus to Bihar.”

But Rahul left the girl inside the bus promising her to return soon but he never did. It was later found that he had sold her to another trafficker for ₹ 1.5 lakh. A man, claiming to be Rahul’s friend, took her from the bus to the Howrah station and travelled by train to Bihar. She was again sold to another man named Kamal who took the minor to a woman, Chitra, the third buyer of the girl, at Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh.

Chitra forcibly “married” her off to her 45-year-old brother who left her with the Bijnor woman after a month. Then Chitra’s son Luv started raping the girl. “It was at this time that the victim got a chance to telephone her mother using Chitra’s mobile and inform her about her location,” the police said.

By that time, the police in West Bengal had found that the victim’s own mobile was last traced in Bihar and from then on, it was kept switched off. The “boyfriend” was arrested in Bihar. His arrest scared Chitra and she asked Kamal to take the minor away. Kamal and his aide Bhisham then brought her to Kashipur in Uttarakhand.

When the duo came to know that Chitra and her son Luv were arrested, they got enraged, raped the victim many times and fled leaving her at Kashipur Junction railway station. The CID officer and his team looking for her, found the traumatised girl at one corner of the railway station. They rescued her in May, 2015 just about four months after her elopement and brought her back to West Bengal.

“She was unable to speak because of trauma and remained silent for more than a month. We had to take her to a psychologist and after several sessions of counselling, she broke down and divulged details of her suffering,” he said.

“It is heartening to see that the girl, who was staying at a government home since her rescue in May 2015, started studying and is now eligible for college education, a police officer said. The police, however, could not trace the man who brought the girl from the bus and sold her to Kamal.

The CID officers arrested the six accused, including Chitra and the victim’s “boyfriend” Rahul, from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The Barasat POCSO court this week sentenced Kamal, Bhisham, Chitra’s brother and son Luv to 20 years and Chitra and Rahul to 10 years imprisonment and fine.

“By God’s grace, we got back our daughter. Whatever happened has happened. We are happy that those responsible for her plight were punished,” said her father who works in a sari shop. The family is now looking for a match for her, he said.

 

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