Kidnapped girl back with kin after 10 years

The Delhi police arrested eight persons in connection with kidnapping and trafficking of a 12-year-old girl from northeast Delhi a decade ago. All the accused were arrested after the victim recently turned up and reunited with her mother and sister as an adult after a gap of 10 years.

The arrested accused included Ranju and her husband Shyam Sunder, who had kidnapped the 12-year-old girl who was going to meet her sister near Lohe Ka Pul at Janta Colony on July 2, 2006. The couple took her to Ambala where they sold her to another woman, identified as Babli, for a sum of '12,000, said DCP (northeast) A.K. Singla.

In the next 10 years, the trafficked girl was sold nine times to different persons and raped by many men and has borne two children out of wedlock with a man thrice her age. She was widowed after which she was thrown out of her husband’s home in Sangrur in Punjab, said the officer.

After she returned home as an adult after 10 years on July 25 and met her mother Anwari and sister Shanno, local police took the matter seriously and a SIT was formed to probe the case and arrest all the accused involved.

During the course of investigation, the victim was medically examined and counselled by NGO representatives. Her statement was recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of CrPC.

The SIT conducted raids in various districts of Punjab and Haryana, and busted a notorious gang involved in human trafficking, he said.