16-YEAR-OLD PREGNANT GIRL RESCUED BY DCW TEAM

NEWDELHI:THE Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Thursday said it had rescued a nine-month pregnant 16-year-old girl from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, who was allegedly kidnapped and trafficked from Rourkela, Odisha, in 2017.

A DCW team conducted the rescue operation on February 5, its officials said. The commission in a statement said the girl’s father, a government employee , had complained to the DCW in January this year after he did not get relief in the state.

The complaint was forwarded to the Anti-human Trafficking Cell (AHTC) of the commission.

“The minor narrated her traumatic ordeal of being kidnapped, sold and forced into a marriage with a 40-year-old man, who has been raping her over the past one year,” the DCW said in a statement on Thursday.

The complainant told the DCW that despite getting an FIR registered immediately after her daughter went missing, the state police was unable to trace her.

“After around 10 days of her going missing, the father learnt that his daughter had been forcefully married off by his relatives to a 40-year-old man and sent to Rajasthan. Also, that she was trafficked for ₹4 lakh. After two weeks, his daughter was taken to Rourkela by Rajasthan police, where he was shocked to see the 14-year-old girl dressed up like a married woman,” it said.

After being brought to Rourkela, the girl was taken to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) from where she was handed over to her father, but the police took custody of the girl and sent her back to Rajasthan, it said.

The Delhi Commission for Women said the girl had revealed that on a day when her father had gone to work, she was kidnapped from her house by two of his relatives.

“The girl’s father wrote to various authorities in Rajasthan and Odisha for over a year, but to no avail. He later approached the commission after which it formed a team to rescue the girl. We appeal to the state police to take strict action against the trafficking nexus,” DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal said.