Minor girl with learning disability sold, tortured

AHMEDABAD: In one more revelation in the Kanbha human trafficking case, it has been found that a 14-year-old girl was abducted from the Shahibaug area by the prime accused Ashok Patel as she was a vulnerable target due to her learning disability.
The minor girl was recently rescued by the Kanbha police while probing into the abduction of another 14-year-old girl who was rescued from a farmhouse on May 11 in Boru village of Mansa in Gandhinagar.
Cops found that the prime accused, Ashok Patel, his wife Renuka, and their two children along with three others ran a human smuggling racket.
"The girl with disabilities was abducted from Shahibaug around a year ago, and was sold to a man from Dasada in Surendranagar. We have rescued her and handed her over to her family," said an officer of Ahmedabad Rural police.
The girl's uncle narrated her ordeal to TOI.
He said, "We had approached the Shahibaug police when she went missing. Around a year later, we got her back when the police were probing the Kanbha case. She was tortured, raped repeatedly by several men and later sold in marriage."
He said that she had also faced violence at the house of her "in-laws" in Surendranagar.
"She could not speak or communicate properly. She could not adapt to the culture and lifestyle of the family where she was sold. This irked her "in-laws" who attacked her on several occasions and kept her in confinement," said her uncle.
A police officer said that the girls from downtrodden communities were the main target of the human traffickers.
"This girl with learning disabilities was an easy target for the human traffickers as she could not narrate properly what had happened to her," said the police officer. The officer said that Patel had lured her with a silver anklet and told her that he was like her father, after which the girl went along with him and was subjected to brutalities.