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Ashok Gehlot responds to report on girls auctioned on stamps in Rajasthan: ‘No one will be spared’
A media report carried on October 26 said girls between eight and 18 were auctioned on stamp papers to settle financial disputes in Bhilwara district, and if not sold, their mothers were raped on the “diktats of caste panchayats”.
Commenting on reports stating that girls were auctioned on stamp papers in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, chief minister Ashok Gehlot said on Friday that teams have been deployed to probe the matter. “No one will be spared,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Gehlot further stated that his government will ensure that a “proper probe is done” in the matter.
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His response comes after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the National Commission for Women (NCW), the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the Rajasthan State Commission for Women (RSCW) took cognisance of the matter and sought report from the state government.
The NCPCR is scheduled to send a team to Bhilwara on November 7 to meet the families affected by the trafficking, while the NCW stated earlier in the day that it has formed a two-member fact-finding team to look into the news reports of the auctioning.
The issue first came to light after the NHRC took note of the matter, and issued a notice to the Gehlot-led Rajasthan government, seeking a report within four weeks.
According to a media report carried on October 26, caste panchayats in Rajasthan were responsible for committing the crime. Whenever there is a dispute between two parties in Bhilwara, people reportedly go to the panchayats instead of the police, for settlement. The report further stated that if the girls, aged between eight and 18, are “not sold” to settle financial disputes then their mothers are raped on the “diktats of caste panchayats”.
These girls were reportedly auctioned off and trafficked to various regions, even overseas, and subjected to sexual assault, torture, physical abuse and slavery. Detailing an incident, the media report stated that a man who was forced to sell his house and take multiple loans for the treatment of his wife and later his mother, sold his “small daughter for ₹6 lakh to some people, who took her to Agra”. She was then “sold three times and became pregnant four times”, the report added.
The bodies cited above have said that if the media report is found to be true, the matter is a grave violation of human rights. The NCW said the issue is “extremely appalling and traumatising”.
Meanwhile, the matter has triggered sharp criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the opposition, who have called out the Congress government under Gehlot for the poor law and order in the state.
BJP leader Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore claimed that the state government is “aware of the matter” but not one FIR has been registered “Why [is] POCSO not [imposed] in this case? Why [is] administration not taking any action? Cases of kidnapping are increasing in Rajasthan. [As many as] 400 girls go missing every month,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
Leader of opposition in Rajasthan assembly Gulab Chand Kataria echoed Rathore, saying the Bhilwara incident had taken place long time ago “but the system is still going on”. “The law and order in Rajasthan are going from bad to worse. It seems that the government is not worried about it,” he added.
