Police rescue teen who was abducted, sexually assaulted, sold for marriage

ACCORDING TO POLICE, GARG ALLEGEDLY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER AND LATER SOLD HER TO ANOTHER MAN FOR ₹50,000

NEW DELHI: The city police on Saturday said they rescued a 16-year-old girl from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, nearly two months after she was allegedly kidnapped from Delhi by a 24-year-old man, who also reportedly sexually assaulted her and later sold her for marriage to another man for ₹50,000. Police said the accused befriended the girl on a social networking platform.

The accused, identified as Rajeev Garg, has been arrested while his tenant, Ram Mohan alias Gautam Sharma, to whom he allegedly sold the girl, is still at large, police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Monika Bhardwaj said that the girl’s parents filed a kidnapping complaint in a West Delhi police station on May 30, and said that she had left home a day before saying she was going to her friend’s house.

With help from the anti-human trafficking unit, police analysed the girl’s phone records which revealed frequent conversations with a number traced to Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior and Bhind. Police said the location of that particular phone was also found in Delhi on the day the girl went missing.

“Our team tracked the movement of the mobile number and caught its user, Garg, from Bhind on July 22. He led the team to his house from where the girl was rescued... The team returned to Delhi with Garg and the girl,” said DCP Bhardwaj.

In her statement, the girl said that she came in contact with Garg on the social networking app where the latter’s profile name was listed as ‘Mahi Garg’.

She claimed she blocked Garg’s number when she came to know of his identity a few weeks later.

“However, Garg contacted her through another number and emotionally manipulated her into unblocking his number and continue the friendship. He also convinced her to meet him at Madhuban Chowk in Delhi on May 29, from where he lured her to his hometown in Bhind,” the DCP said.

According to police, Garg allegedly physically and sexually assaulted the girl in Bhind for some days and later reportedly sold her to his 30-year-old tenant, Mohan, for ₹50,000.

Police said Mohan, who wanted to marry the girl as his first wife had left him, absconded when the police raided the house.

Investigators added that Garg earlier spent seven months in jail in a domestic violence case after his wife, who is now separated from him, filed a case.