Abducted 10 years ago, woman returns after being sold, raped

NEW DELHI: For 22-year-old Sana, life has come a full circle after 10 painful years.

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Abducted when she was 12, Sana was trafficked, sold twice, raped, married forcefully, made to bear two kids and worked in a dance bar before she could find her way home in northeast Delhi.

Her family had accepted it as their fate when efforts over three years failed to trace Sana. The police had also declared the case shut.

On July 25, it was an awkward homecoming for Sana whose mother could not recognise her. A police officer privy to the details of the case told HT that Sana had to introduce herself to her mother who had lost all hope of getting back her daughter.

In the safety of her home, Sana shared her ordeal over ten years.

She told her family that a couple had abducted her from near her house in Janta Colony, Seelampur. Her family now lives in Kabir Nagar in the same area. Sana had gone to visit a relative nearby. She said a couple dragged her into a car and drugged her.

“When she regained consciousness after several hours, Sana found herself in a locked in a room in Ambala with 10 more girls of her age. The couple kept her there for 15-20 days and then took her to a village in Gujarat where she was sold to a farmer,” Rubiya, Sana’s mother, said.

The farmer kept Sana confined to a water pump room in an agricultural field for two years. She was forced to work in the fields during the day and was locked in the room during the night. During this period, the farmer’s son, who she identified as one Balwant, kept raping her.

“Balwant used to beat me up and burn me with cigarettes,” Rubiya said.

After two years, the same couple who had abduced her, returned. They took her along to different locations in Ambala, Chandigarh, and some places in Punjab. In a village in Punjab, she was sold to one Jarnail. Sana doesn’t recall the name of the village.

“Jarnail’s relatives forced me to get married to an elderly driver, Bhagera Singh. I bore him two sons, Mamveer and Ranjit. After three years, he died and his family took away my sons and threw me out,” Sana said.

She returned to Ambala as it was the only place she knew. She had a faded memory of her address in Delhi. “Delhi and Jamnapaar (trans-Yamuna) were my only memory of the city I was born in,” she said.

In Ambala, she met a woman who took her to Siliguri in West Bengal, promising her to get a job there. In Siliguri she worked in a dance bar. Moved by her story, the woman promised her help to return home. “She used to frequently visit Delhi and knew about the city. Based on the description of the area, she brought me to Janta Colony.”

They learnt about the new address from neighbours. Sana’s parents run a grocery shop in the area.

DCP (northeast) AK Singla said the case will be reopened.

“A case of kidnapping registered in 2006 was declared unsolved. Now that the victim is back, we will reopen the case and bust the human trafficking racket,” said Singla.

(The name of the victim and her mother have been changed to protect their identity)