16-yr-old ‘forced into prostitution, tortured by aunt’
NEW DELHI: A 16-year-old girl has accused her aunt of forcing her into prostitution and brutalising her over a period of two years, police said.
The girl alleged that she was forced to have physical relations with as many as 10 men in a day, and petrol, chilli powder and safety pins were inserted in her private parts.the accused aunt allegedly gave girl electric shocks when she resisted.
The girl was kept captive in a rented flat in south Delhi’s Krishna Nagar near Safdarjung Enclave. On February 6, the girl escaped and approached the Delhi Police on February 12 after which investigators arrested her aunt and three other persons, said Romil Baaniya, deputy commissioner of police (south).
A native of Malkangiri in Odisha, the girl had been lured to Delhi four years ago by her mother’s sister who lived in a rented home in Krishna Nagar. The aunt had promised her a tour of Delhi but was never allowed to return home, the girl told police in her statement.
The girl’s traumatic experience began sometime in 2016 when she was only 14 years old. “My uncle (husband of the accused aunt) tried to rape me one day. When I cried over that, my aunt beat me up,” she alleged.
Over the next few months, her aunt allegedly forced her with strangers. “Unknown men would insert brinjal in my private parts leading to bleeding,” she told police. Over the last 18 months, she was allegedly forced to have physical relations with 10 men in a day, the customers being procured by male pimps, she alleged. During that period, she allegedly got pregnant, and was forced to abort. “In pain and desperation, I slit both my wrists. The cut marks are still visible,” she said.
One day, the girl allegedly told a pimp that she would either kill herself or escape. “The pimp divulged everything to my aunt who beat me up with a baseball bat. She then started rubbing petrol and chilli powder on my private organs and poking me with safety pins,” the girl alleged.
THE ESCAPE
Few months ago, the girl said she found a confidante in her aunt’s friend at a birthday party of the latter’s son. “My aunt’s friend noticed beating marks on my bare back and asked me about it and I told her. She then scolded my aunt,” said the girl.
When the girl couldn’t take torture any longer, she slipped out of her aunt’s home on February 6. She went to the home of her aunt’s friend in south Delhi’s Deoli. The girl visited the Safdarjung Enclave police station on February 12 after which a case of rape and under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was registered. The aunt’s friend provided shelter to the girl after her escape. DCP Baaniya said the woman erred by not alerting authorities despite being aware of the crime for several months. “As of now, there appears to be criminal liability against the aunt’s friend too,” said Baaniya.