Tortured, starved: MP boy escapes 2 yrs after mother sold him for Rs 50,000
The boy, now 11, was tortured, starved, locked up, made to work illegally, forcibly converted to Islam and circumcised a few months ago
A 35-year-old woman has been arrested by police in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district, for allegedly having sold her minor son to two carpet weavers in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh for Rs 50,000.
Laxmi Chowdhary sold her son Shivam to Guddu and Jahagir Ali in eastern UP’s Mirzapur district two years ago, police said.
The boy, now 11, was tortured, starved, locked up, made to work illegally, forcibly converted to Islam and circumcised a few months ago. He was given the name Sonu Ali, Satna additional SP Rameshwar Yadav told HT on Tuesday.
The story came to light after Shivam managed to escape his tormentors six months ago and went to the Mirzapur police. He was put in a shelter by the district’s child welfare committee and finally reunited with his deceased father’s family in Satna two months ago.
“The family reported the matter to the Satna police a week ago. We have lodged a case of human trafficking, child and bonded labour besides forceful religious conversion under the MP Freedom of Religion Act. The boy’s mother, who was living with another man, was arrested on Sunday. The statements of her two daughters, who live with her, will be recorded to ascertain if they may have suffered possible atrocities too,” said Yadav.
Shivam is the youngest of Chowdhary’s three children.