Bangladeshi women kill man for trafficking them, ‘exposing’ to HIV: Police

Senior police officers on Wednesday said they currently looking for 15-18 more women who were also reportedly trafficked from Bangladesh.

New Delhi: Over a month after a 44-year-old businessman was found dead at his Sangam Vihar home, Delhi Police arrested four illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in connection with the incident. Police said that an initial probe showed that the deceased had tested positive for HIV and was undergoing treatment, but forced the women into physical relations with him without revealing it, causing them to seek revenge for acts of repeated abuse, including forcing them into prostitution.

The murder was reported on October 20. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The incident took place on October 20 and was reported to police by the victim’s 40-year-old wife, who did not suspect any foul play. However, an autopsy report issued on November 4 revealed he was strangulated. The victim was from Kolkata and was staying in Delhi for the past 15 years, police said.

Police said they found that the businessman was in contact with at least three women on the phone before his death. The women and their partners were changing cities and would intermittently visit Delhi for a brief period. “We had to interrogate the wife and get their details. Technical surveillance was mounted on all suspects. After days of conducting searches and going after them, three of them were caught near Faridabad,” an investigating officer said.

The three included two 22-year-old women and the husband of one of them. At their instance, the husband of the other woman was also arrested, all last Saturday, police said. They also identified two more suspects. The women are being tested for HIV, police said.

A second investigating officer said, “They told us that they came to Delhi last year after the accused approached them in Bangladesh. He promised to give them jobs and home but pushed them into prostitution. Also, after some time, he started forcing them to have sex with him. He was abusing them. The women alleged they and their friends and roommates were beaten up. They would resist the sexual advances but were threatened.”

Police found the deceased would snatch their passports and threatened to get the police to arrest them.

Senior police officers on Wednesday said they currently looking for 15-18 more women who were also reportedly trafficked from Bangladesh and staying in rooms rented by him, but fled after the man’s death. They are trying to find them to get them tested for HIV, officers said.

The probe

Police said the accused women and their husbands came to Delhi after the victim visited them in their home town in Bangladesh, promising work and accommodation. While he employed the women’s husbands in his cosmetics and meat shops, he trafficked the women to different states for money and threatened to report them as illegal immigrants if they resisted his attempts at physical abuse.

Upon learning that the businessman was strangulated, DCP (south) Ankit Chauhan’s team consisting of inspector Umesh Sharma and inspector Ranveer Mavi started analysing old call details records, CCTV footage, activated informers and looking for other details. They found out about his properties.

The first investigating officer, not wishing to be identified, said, “Locals said that at least 15-20 women lived there and were forced into prostitution. But none of them was found. They had all fled…”

The second officer said the women, upon learning about his health, informed others and decided to take revenge. “In October, they found that the businessman is HIV positive. They were shocked and roped in their husbands. They spiked the victim’s tea with sleeping pills when his wife was not home. On October 20, they fed him the tea and when he lost consciousness, they strangulated him to death,” the officer said.

Police are checking if the women used poison, drugs or sleeping pills, and are also looking for a 20-year-old woman and her partner in connection with the murder.