Woman BJP leader, 4 others arrested in human trafficking case in Chhattisgarh

Police arrested five people, including a woman BJP leader of Raipur, in the last five days for their alleged involvement in human trafficking which took place in Dongargarh area of Rajnandgaon district, a senior official said.

Rajnandgaon police in a statement claimed that the arrests were made after a married woman, who was abducted and sold off, managed to reach to the police and told her story.

Police said that the accused were identified as Sajda Sayyad (32), Salman Khan (30), Junaid Khan (22) and Shubham Tiwari, all residents of Dongargarh and were arrested on November 23. Another accused, Ganga Pande, was nabbed on Thursday from her residence in Raipur.

Pande was a ward-level BJP leader in the state capital and was expelled from the party on Friday afternoon.

“After the incident came into light, state BJP president Vishnudeo Sai immediately expelled Pandey from the party. She was ward-level leader from north of Raipur,” said state BJP spokesperson Gaurishankar Srivas.

Rajnandgaon police claimed that the 23-year-old victim in her statement said she was befriended by Sajda and on September 11 was invited to her home for tea. The victim’s 3-year-old son was with her when she reached her house. Subsequently, the accused had offered her tea mixed with some sedatives and after drinking it she fell unconscious.

When she gained consciousness after a few hours, the victim was at Raipur airport from where she was taken to Delhi on a flight. Three other accused who had accompanied her threatened to kill her son if she narrated the incident to anyone, the police claimed.

From Delhi, the woman and her son were taken to Haryana by road and were kept in a rented house there. Tiwari allegedly raped the woman before she was being sold to a person identified as Suresh for Rs 1 lakh.

“After a few days, the woman tried to escape with her kid from his clutches but she was caught and handed her over to the gang that sold her. The woman was again sold to another man named Rajesh in Haryana for marriage. However, when the woman narrated her ordeal to Rajesh he informed the local police and facilitated her return to Dongargarh,” police said.

“After reaching Dongargarh on November 22, the woman lodged a case in this connection and the four accused of the town were immediately arrested. The investigation revealed the involvement of Ganga Pade, a local politician from Raipur who had arranged for the tickets for the accused to travel to Delhi,” the police said in a statement.