Greater Noida: 6 arrested for selling girls to older men for marriage, 1 rescued

Greater Noida: Police arrested six people on Sunday for allegedly kidnapping a 12-year-old girl and selling her off for ₹70,000 to a 52-year-old man for marriage in Haryana, officials said on Monday

Greater Noida: Police arrested six people on Sunday for allegedly kidnapping a 12-year-old girl and selling her off for ₹70,000 to a 52-year-old man for marriage in Haryana, officials said on Monday.

Greater Noida: 6 arrested for selling girls to older men for marriage, 1 rescued

Three women and as many men, including the groom, have been arrested, said the police, adding that a group of five people have been involved in human trafficking, mainly in Haryana, for the past two years.

Vrinda Shukla, deputy commissioner of police (women safety), Gautam Budh Nagar, said the victim went missing on December 26, 2021, while playing outside her home in Badalpur’s Chapraula village in Gautam Budh Nagar.

“Based on a complaint by the victim’s mother, a case was registered against the unidentified people under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 363 (kidnapping) at the Badalpur police station on December 26 last year. Police launched an investigation and found out that the gang had lured the girl and married her off to an elderly person in Haryana’s Rohtak,” Shukla said.

“Singh revealed during interrogation that a group of women had sold the girl to him for ₹70,000,” according to Shukla.

Based on information provided by Singh, the police conducted searches in Gautam Budh Nagar and Haryana, and arrested the human traffickers -- Gudiya (23) and Kiran (35), residents of Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad; Pooja (24), a resident of Badalpur in Haryana; Sunil Kumar (30) and Dhramraj (32), residents of Rohtak in Haryana.

The suspects confessed to the crime, and told the police that they used to identify minor girls in the Greater Noida area and allegedly trafficked them for marriage. They used to lure the children to go with them, take them to Haryana, after which the group would sell them off to buyers for marriage, said the police.

Police said that IPC sections 370 (trafficking) and 376 (rape), and sections 3 and 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act have been added to the FIR.

The suspects were produced before a court and sent to judicial custody on Monday, according to the police.