KOLKATA: The Covid-19 pandemic has turned out to be a blessing for a 16-year-old girl from Baruipur. She had been trafficked to Delhi while riots broke out on the north-eastern fringes of the city. She was sold to a man in Rajasthan, but the latter could not come to Delhi and take possession of the girl, thanks to the lockdown.
A joint team of Baruipur and Delhi police, with the help of a Delhi-based NGO and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), rescued the girl on April 21. Cops have detained a person in connection with the trafficking.
The minor, however, will have to remain in Delhi till the lockdown ends. She was sent for medical examination and kept at a children’s home in Delhi.
“We traced the area where she had been confined. But we had no clue about the exact house where she was kept. We decided to check each house, posing as NGO members and distributed ration to people. We were lucky that the trafficker had readily accepted our ration offer,” a member of the rescue team told TOI.
According to the police, the minor was confined to a dingy room in Khajuri Khas area after she had been trafficked to Delhi on March 21. As the girl went missing, her father lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that she had been abducted. He received calls from the trafficker who had asked him to withdraw the case and threatened him with dire consequences. “The girl was lured on the pretext of marriage as she had developed a liking for one of the traffickers. Just two days before the announcement of the lockdown, the accused had taken her to Delhi by train with an intention to sell her,” said a member of the NGO, Mission Mukti Foundfation.
The unexpected announcement of the lockdown sent the trafficker’s plan haywire. According to the police, there was stringent police checking at the UP border, close to the place where the girl had been kept. That did not give the accused any chance to flee the area with the girl.
A joint team of Baruipur and Delhi police, with the help of a Delhi-based NGO and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), rescued the girl on April 21. Cops have detained a person in connection with the trafficking.
The minor, however, will have to remain in Delhi till the lockdown ends. She was sent for medical examination and kept at a children’s home in Delhi.
“We traced the area where she had been confined. But we had no clue about the exact house where she was kept. We decided to check each house, posing as NGO members and distributed ration to people. We were lucky that the trafficker had readily accepted our ration offer,” a member of the rescue team told TOI.
According to the police, the minor was confined to a dingy room in Khajuri Khas area after she had been trafficked to Delhi on March 21. As the girl went missing, her father lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that she had been abducted. He received calls from the trafficker who had asked him to withdraw the case and threatened him with dire consequences. “The girl was lured on the pretext of marriage as she had developed a liking for one of the traffickers. Just two days before the announcement of the lockdown, the accused had taken her to Delhi by train with an intention to sell her,” said a member of the NGO, Mission Mukti Foundfation.
The unexpected announcement of the lockdown sent the trafficker’s plan haywire. According to the police, there was stringent police checking at the UP border, close to the place where the girl had been kept. That did not give the accused any chance to flee the area with the girl.
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