DCW, Delhi Police bust traffic racket in guise as placement agency; rescue over six females

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) and Delhi Police together have unearthed an interstate sex racket operating in the guise of a placement agency, named 'Arti Placement Agency', in Nihal Vihar. A raid was conducted after two women, who managed to escape the dreaded place, lodged a complaint with DCW.

Following the raid, six girls and women were rescued from the agency. The owner of the placement agency and the building, Arti, and her husband Baburaj were immediately arrested. An FIR has been registered at Nihal Vihar police station.

The victims alleged that the accused couple forced the captive women to conceive children, which they used to sell to traffickers.

"The government and police should take strict action to curb the proliferation of such agencies dealing in human trafficking of poor girls from poverty-stricken remote areas," said Swati Maliwal, DCW chief.

The racket came to light when the two women, who had been confined in the office of the agency, managed to escape the clutches of their captors. They immediately went to DCW's Mahila Panchayat Counsellor to seek help.

Following this, all the girls and women trapped in the office were rescued. Later, one of the survivors informed the Commission about being sexually assaulted.

On Wednesday, a Counsellor from DCW's Mahila Panchayat programme accompanied the two women to the Commission. One of them said that she was from Jharkhand and that she had been escorted to Delhi on the pretext of a job opportunity by a local agent named Virender Sahu.

This 30-year-old woman stated that she was kept at a placement agency in Shakurpur. Her mobile phone and Aadhaar card were confiscated by the traffickers and she was dropped at the agency's office, where she would be brutally beaten on refusing to conceive children. She also said that she was raped for two days by another agent, Baratu.

The other woman, aged 40, informed that she was from West Bengal and was accompanied by a woman from her native place for a work opportunity. The latter abandoned the woman at the placement agency and was made to work as a domestic help.