Trafficked from Assam, two girls rescued from Haryana's Bhiwani

Bhiwani, November 25

A joint operation of the Bhiwani and Assam police has busted a racket involving the trafficking of minor girls from Assam, to be sold to overaged unmarried men in Haryana. Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused hailed from Assam and had been using 26 mobile numbers. He was operating the racket along with his sister and her husband living at a village in Bhiwani district.

The police rescued two girls from Hariyawas and Bidhnoi villages of the district. The accused lured the girls on the pretext of marrying them and took them to Bhiwani, where his sister had arranged for customers. The accused, his sister and brother-in-law are absconding.

Sold for a little over a lakh

• One of the girls was sold to a family at Hariyawas village for Rs 1.30 lakh
• Another girl was sold for Rs 1.10 lakh to a family at Bidhnoi village

The Assam’s Gauripur police station inspector Habibur Rahman informed “The Tribune” over the phone today that they had taken the custody of one of the girls and were on the way to Assam to reunite her with her family. Another girl, in the custody of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of the district, belonged to a village under another police station, and thus, a police team from Assam would reach Bhiwani by Tuesday to take custody of the girl, he said.

They had procured the photograph of the youth who had used different names to lure girls. “We traced 26 mobile numbers which he had used in the past, including seven numbers of Haryana circle and 19 of Assam,” he said.

Rahman said the accused’s sister Pinki was married at a village in Bhiwani some years ago. She and her husband used to search for customers, mostly those who had crossed the marriageable age. “The accused used to lure the girls from backward areas on the pretext of marrying them. He would then bring them to Bhiwani and sell them to prospective grooms,” he said. “We showed the photo of the accused to Pinki’s father-in-law, who admitted that he often visited the house and used to stay there for three-four days,” the cop revealed.

Bhiwani Child Welfare Committee president Satender Tanwar said the accused had sold one of the girls to a family at Hariyawas village for Rs 1.30 lakh, and another to a family at Bidhnoi village for Rs 1.10 lakh.

One of the girls revealed that the accused pretended to be in love with her and offered to take her to Shillong. “But we boarded a train to Delhi. When I protested, he got me to talk to his married sister, who spoke in Assamese, to win over my trust. She assured me that she would solemnise my marriage with her brother in Bhiwani and that she would keep us with her until I attained marriageable age,” the girl told the police.

On reaching Bhiwani, she was photographed with some other girls and a man. Later, she was forcibly handed over to a man and the photo was used as proof of marriage.