8 held for kidnapping girl who reunited with family after 10 yrs

Eight persons have been arrested for allegedly being involved in the kidnapping and selling of a woman, now aged 22 years, around 10 years ago from a Northeast Delhi area. The woman recently got reunited with her mother and sister. 

According to the police, the arrested accused include a couple Ranju and her husband Shyam Sunder. On July 2, 2006, the couple had allegedly kidnapped the victim, who was aged 12 years at that time, while she was going to meet her sister near Lohe Ka Pul at Janta Colony.

The police said the couple took the girl to Ambala  in Haryana, where they sold her to a woman named Babli for Rs 12,000.

They added that in these 10 years, the girl was sold nine times to different people and raped by many. She was even  married to a man thrice her age and has two children from him, police said. After the man passed away, the woman was thrown out of her husband’s home at Sangrur in Punjab.

On July 25, 2016, the woman managed to return to her home in Khajoori Khas area somehow and met her mother and sister. The victim reported the matter to the police, after which a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to probe the case.

The police said during the course of investigation, the victim was medically examined and counselled by an NGO. Her statement has already been recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC.

The police said the SIT conducted several raids in various districts of Punjab and Haryana, including Mansa, Bhatida, Patiala, Sangrur, Ambala and Kurukshetra, and busted a gang involved in human trafficking.

According to the police, the arrested include Aruna alias Babli (from Kurukshetra), the kingpin of the gang, Sarup Chand (Patiala); Partap Singh (Sangrur), who bought and sold the girl; Jagshir Singh (Sangrur), who married the victim and then sold her; Makhhan Singh (Sangrur), who allegedly got the girl married to a truck driver thrice her age with whom she has two sons, and Birender Singh (Mansa), nephew of the truck driver, who also raped her.

The police added that with Babli’s arrest, the lives of two minor girls, who were kidnapped from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and Muzzafarnagar in Bihar, have been saved. They were locked up in a rented flat in Kurukshetra.