Four arrested for holding Fazilka girl captive, pushing her into prostitution

Were on the run since February when the police had booked them on the complaint of the victim’s mother.

Chasing them for four months, police have arrested a 23-year-old woman and her three aides for holding a 14-year-old Fazilka girl captive for four months, raping her and pushing her into prostitution.

The girl had escaped from captivity in January and reached the Ludhiana railway station where a Childline Helpline team rescued her. (Representative photo)

The accused are Ramandeep, alias Simran, 23, of Phase 3, Dugri, who kidnapped the child; her friend Rajandeep Singh, alias Gagan, Kot Mangal Singh, who raped the victim; and their accomplices Ashish Masih, alias Ashu, and Sunita of Tibba Road, who made money off of pandering the girl.

The matter had come to fore after the victim narrated the ordeal to her mother, who approached the Fazilka police. After lodging a zero FIR on February 14, the Fazilka police had referred the case to Ludhiana police, who registered a case on February 29.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, City 2) Jaskiranjit Singh Teja said the victim, a student of Class 8 in Laduka, Fazilka, had told the police that she and her younger brother had been living with their grandmother for over a year following marital discord between their parents.

Ramandeep had kept her at her house for over a month, where she forced her take drugs. In the absence of the woman, her friend Gagan raped her for three days. In October, the duo sent her to the house of a woman named Sunita at Gulabi Bagh, Tibba Road.

Sunita and her accomplice Ashish, who lives in Prem Vihar, Tibba Road, then pushed her into prostitution. Sunita would send her with different men after sedating her with drugs.

The victim added that managed to escape from Sunita’s house in January 2020 and returned to the Ludhiana railway station, where she was found by members of Childline helpline. They helped reunite her with her parents. Earlier in February, she revealed the matter to her mother, who took her to the police.

The ADCP said the accused had been booked under Sections 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave), 370-A (exploitation of a trafficked child), 372 (selling minor for purposes of prostitution, etc), 373 (buying minor for purposes of prostitution, etc) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The police produced the accused before the court on Saturday, from where they were sent to three-day police custody for questioning.