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A minor girl from Delhi was trafficked, forcibly married, and raped in Uttar Pradesh after she left her house following a dispute with her father. Four people were arrested.
Delhi Police (Representative Image/PTI)
A 13-year-old girl was allegedly trafficked, forcibly married off for money, and was sexually assaulted in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli days after she left her house in Delhi following a dispute with her father.
The police have arrested four people in connection with the case, and an investigation was underway to identify other possible links in the trafficking network.
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According to the details, the girl had left her house in northwest Delhi’s JJ Colony, Wazirpur, on July 21, for tuition. However, as she did not return, her family approached the police and registered a kidnapping case.
Later, a team was formed to trace her and she was rescued nearly a month after she had left her house.
The girl told the police that she had left her home in a distressed state after an argument with her father and travelled by metro from the Inderlok metro station to the New Delhi railway station.
From there, she boarded a train and reached Meerut, where she came across Vikas, one of the arrested accused.
Vikas lured her, and she was subsequently confined in the house of co-accused Ashu and later handed over to Rajeev, who intended to “purchase” her.
To facilitate the deal, a fake Aadhaar card was prepared by another accused, Ramanjot Singh, projecting her as an adult.
The police told news agency PTI that Rajeev forcibly married the girl on July 24 and allegedly subjected her to sexual assault at his Shamli residence.
In between, the girl’s family received a missed call from an unknown number. However, when contacted, a woman said her daughter-in-law must have mistakenly called the number and cut the call.
The location of the number was traced to Shamli, and the girl was rescued from Rajeev’s residence with the help of the local police on August 16.
Commenting on the incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Bhisham Singh told PTI, “The girl had gone missing on July 21 after she left her house in northwest Delhi’s JJ Colony, Wazirpur, for tuition but did not return.”
“A case of kidnapping was registered at the Bharat Nagar police station and a team formed to trace her,” he said.
The investigation revealed that Ramanjot, who runs a cyber cafe in Ghaziabad, prepared the forged Aadhaar card of the victim using an online PDF editing application, police said. The forged document and four mobile phones used in the conspiracy were seized from the accused.
“During sustained interrogation, the accused disclosed that they had hatched a conspiracy to sell the girl for money. The victim’s statement corroborated the sequence of events, and she has been handed over to her family after counselling,” the DCP said.
During the investigation, the victim’s details were promptly uploaded on ZIPNET and circulated nationwide through the NCRB, SCRB, CBI and Missing Persons Squad.
Public notices were published in leading newspapers, and CCTV footage was thoroughly examined, which showed the victim near the Inderlok metro bus stand.
More than 30 mobile phone numbers were analysed, suspicious Instagram accounts checked, and multiple raids conducted across Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, including in Mathura, Rohini, Palwal, Dwarka, Shakurpur and at various railway stations, the DCP said.
The four arrested in the case were identified as Rajeev (40), a resident of Shamli, Vikas (20) from Hapur, Ashu (55) from Meerut and Ramanjot Singh (24) from Ghaziabad.
All the four were booked under Sections 143 (kidnapping), 144 (exploitation of a trafficked person), 64 (rape), 337 (forgery), 339 (having possession of forged document), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), sections 6 and 21 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sections 9 and 10 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.
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About the Author
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
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