A 12 year old child and forced woman rescued from a private brothel in Prayagraj, UP
On 14th July, we got a lead about a minor girl being sexually exploited in a private brothel in Prayagraj (Allahabad). While going through the details, we learned that the victim was only 12 years old. We decided to rescue her right away.
On the 15th morning, we met the Commissioner of Police, Prayagraj. Since he was busy with some official work, he asked us to come the next day around lunch time. We called the Assistant Police Commissioner, ACP, . He never picked up our call. We then called the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch. He was out of town on some official work.
We exhausted our contacts and were wondering who would help us rescue this 12 year old child from being sexually exploited. Our biggest fear was that the brothel keeper would relocate the victim and we wouldn’t be able to find her. At about 2:45 pm, we went to meet the Anti Human Trafficking Unit, AHTU, but the officer we wanted to meet was also not there. We contacted the Special Juvenile Police Unit, SJPU. We told him about the 12 year old victim being exploited and our multiple visits to various police officials. He told us that he would return back to his office in 30 minutes and would meet us.
We met at his office and started to discuss rescue strategies. He said that he would go ahead with the rescue using the local police. We were a little concerned about a tip off from the local police to the brothel, but at this time, could only hope for the best.
On 15th July at 17:33 pm, the police and our team raided the brothel and rescued two victims, Sabita who was 12 years old and 26 year old Ruki. Three people were present at the brothel; a male pimp, a female brothel keeper and the male owner of the house. In all the chaos of the rescue, the pimp ran away. The police arrested the brothel keeper and the house owner. The police started to blame each other for letting the pimp get away. We called the ACP and informed him of the same. He called his team and fired them for letting the pimp get away.
The police started to collect the evidence from the brothel; new and used condoms, money, beer bottles, and mobile phones. The police started to interrogate the female brothel keeper. She shared that she bought girls from Kushinagar (291 kms from Pragyaraj) and sent them to brothels in Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Gorakhpur, Mirzapur, Lucknow… We shared that the police should treat 26 year old Ruki as a victim and not as an accused. They told us that they will do everything according to the law.
On 16th July at 2 am, the police completed filing the First Information Report. We ensured that it had relevant sections of the IPC, ITPA and POCSO attached.
We were at the police station the next morning to get a copy of the First Information Report. While going through it, we saw that the police had left out one of the accused names, Anita. She was the main accused and spearheading the entire prostitution racket. The FIR also recorded Ruki as an accused. Some of the IPC sections were also not included in the FIR.
We called the ACP and told him about these developments. He told us that they have gone according to the law and since the case is still under investigation, they will make changes as the investigation progresses.
Sabita was placed in a one stop centre for the night, the next day she was taken for her medical test. After her medical test, she was produced before the Child Welfare Committee. Since Ruki was named as an accused in the case, she is still in police custody. When we met Ruki, she was crying and in deep distress. We are following up on her case.
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