3 more minor girls rescued in Faridabad

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, February 7

With the rescue of three more minor girls from human traffickers in the past 24 hours, the number of such minor girls in the district has reached eight.

A team of officials of the Jharkhand Government, which arrived here recently, were likely to take all victims to their hometowns on February 9, it had been learnt.

“Three girls aged between 15 and 17 years have been found lodged in a couple of houses in Sector 29 here,” said Rishikant, a spokesperson of Shakti Vahini, an NGO coordinating the rescue.

He said all these victims had been trafficked in the past few years, mainly from Godda district of Jharkhand, by a team of traffickers. The kin of the girls had been lured with the promise of handsome and respectable employment in the NCR, he said.

He claimed that a majority of the victims had been exploited and abused physically and sexually during their stay here.

He pointed out that minor girls could not be employed as per the law, but those belonging to poor families became a soft target for traffickers.

He said traffickers offered cash to their kin and respectable job to the victims. Forty girls had been reported to be missing from one district of Jharkhand in the past one year, he added.

While a majority of the rescued were expected to join their families back home soon, one of the victims was still recuperating in the civil hospital. She had suffered grievous injuries at the hands of her employer on January 27, a day before her rescue. The police had nabbed two of the main accused involved in the trafficking racket while two others were on the run.

4 held for forcing orphan into flesh trade

Kurukshetra: The district police have arrested four persons, including a woman, on the charge of pushing a 15-year-old orphan into a prostitution racket. Residing at a shelter home in the district since October last year, the victim spoke about her sexual exploitation during a counselling session. SP Abhishek Garg said District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) Indu Sharma had last week visited the protection home, being managed by a registered NGO. During counselling, the girl stated how she was forced into the flesh trade. As she gave the names, the team arrested Neelam, Avtar, Ajay and Rohit of the district last week, said the SP. She was allegedly abused before reaching the shelter home. A case was registered at the Ladwa police station on the complaint of the DCPO. Police sources said after the death of her parents, the victim and her two sisters were briefly taken care of by their relatives. After the relatives showed their inability to raise the girls, the three sisters had been admitted to the shelter home. TNS