Trafficked from Assam at age 16, traced at 22
NEW DELHI: Six years after a 16-year-old girl from Assam was trafficked into Delhi, allegedly by her neighbour who had lured her saying he was taking on a vacation, the Delhi Police traced the woman, now 22-year-old, to a slum in Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh.
The case had prompted the Delhi Police chief to announce a reward of Rs 50,000 for anyone who gave her whereabouts. In 2015, a special investigation team was formed to trace her.
Police said the neighbour, Deepak, had sold her to a placement agency in south Delhi and the placement agency owner had forced her to work as a domestic help. Two years after being trafficked and forced to work in various houses in Punjab’s Ludhiana and Delhi, she had escaped from the her employer’s south Delhi’s Uday Park home. She had begun living in a slum in Shalimar Bagh and working as a household help.
Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police (south-east), said when her father had tried to save her in the beginning, he too had been held captive by the traffickers for more than two months before he was rescued by the police from the placement agency’s office in Taimoor Nagar.
“The placement agency owner, Jacob Deep, was arrested. Deepak managed to flee and is still untraceable. But the girl was not traced then. The case reached a dead end because she had fled her employer’s home,” said DCP Biswal, adding Deepak was declared a proclaimed offender.
The SIT officials revisited her native village and collected information during which they learnt that she had contacted a neighbour a couple of times a few months ago.
The location of the cell phone was found in Shalimar Bagh area. Investigators scanned several slums in the area and eventually traced a jhuggi where the girl, now an adult, was staying. She was produced before a city court where her statement was recorded. “The woman in her statement said she is now working at her own will. Her parents have been informed. She is now living in her home. Efforts are on to nab Deepak,” added the DCP.