According to police, a couple, namely Bhola and Poonam, had reportedly brought a girl from Ludhiana railway station after she got separated from her parents while travelling with them by train.
A COURT on Saturday slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on an industrialist for employing a 12-year-old girl as domestic help at his residence in Sector 27. The businessman was penalised during the National Lok Adalat at Sector 43, district court, on Saturday. The businessman, Taranjit Singh, along with a couple, had been acquitted in March this year of charges of sexual harassment and human trafficking of the same girl.
According to police, a couple, namely Bhola and Poonam, had reportedly brought a girl from Ludhiana railway station after she got separated from her parents while travelling with them by train. The victim, a 12-year-old girl, was lost at Ludhiana station where Bhola and Poonam met her and took the girl along on the pretext of searching her parents.
The girl told the Woman and Child Welfare Department that she was taken to Ludhiana and made to work in a wine factory. She also said that Bhola Sahni used to beat her and later, he, along with his wife Poonam, sent her to work at the house of Taranjit. The girl further alleged that she was forced to do household chores and even sexually harassed. She was rescued in July 2016 after she informed the Woman and Child Welfare Department.
Then, an FIR was filed against Taranjit, Bhola and Poonam, and the girl sent to Snehalaya. During the trial, the girl turned hostile and Taranjit was acquitted with the couple. However, in a case of using girl as child labour,Taranjit was asked to pay a fine of Rs 25,000. Besides, the Lok Adalat slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 each on two shopkeepers of Burail in Chandigarh for employing two boys at their shops.
