E-Paper
Zirakpur man, wife held for trafficking, raping minor domestic help
After hiring her in March, the man started drugging her and taking her to different men at other locations, the 16-year-old alleged in her complaint to police
Mataur police have arrested a man and his wife for trafficking and sexually assaulting their 16-year-old girl domestic help.
The accused, who are residents of Zirakpur, were arrested following a complaint by the teenager, who alleged that she was drugged and raped by multiple men for weeks.
As per the FIR, the victim had been living in Phase 3B2, Mohali, since February 2024.
In March this year, she came in touch with the couple who offered her a job to help around their house.
The girl narrated that she accepted the job offer and moved to their flat in Zirakpur.
But they started giving her drugs, before transporting her to other places, where men would rape her. She alleged that her employer himself raped her multiple times. Her appeals to the couple to let her go elicited death threats, she alleged.
They further threatened to post her objectionable videos online if she complained or ran away.
Unable to bear the physical and mental onslaughts, the minor finally approached the police.
Meanwhile, police officials privy to the probe said the accused man ran an orchestra and had been living separately from his wife for several years.
“Acting promptly after the girl’s complaint, we arrested the husband-wife duo, who are aged around 40. But we are investigating the role of the wife as she was staying separately for over 10 years. Further probe is on,” an investigator said.
The accused were booked under Sections 64 (rape), 137(2) (kidnapping from lawful guardianship), 87 (kidnapping, abducting, or inducing a woman to compel her marriage or illicit intercourse), 143 (trafficking of a person) and 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS); Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 77 (giving intoxicating liquor, narcotic drugs, tobacco products, or psychotropic substances to a child, unless prescribed by a medical practitioner) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, at the Mataur police station.
