NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday asked the government, Delhi Commission for Women and legal services authority to respond to a plea by a woman, who is a victim of human trafficking and rape, seeking Rs 19 lakh compensation.
The high court asked the authorities to file replies and listed the matter for further hearing on December 9.
The plea filed by a woman said she belongs to a poor and vulnerable family residing in a remote area of a village in Meghalaya and she was lured and trafficked to Delhi on the pretext of a job by her cousin, who along with others, is allegedly running a trafficking racket here.
The plea alleged that hundreds of girls, including minors, were trafficked and forced into commercial sexual exploitation.
The woman said she was lured to Delhi in January last year on the pretext of providing a cooking job here on a Rs 20,000 per month salary.
However, on reaching here, she was taken to a flat where she was repeatedly raped by a man who in turn sold her to several others and was sexually exploited by them.
The plea said that in February last year, she managed to escape and contacted the Malviya Nagar police station with the help of a friend and others, and an FIR was lodged.
It alleged that she was shocked to see that despite a specific complaint, the police official had not invoked the penal provision of rape in the FIR.
The woman claimed that she moved an application for compensation under the Delhi Victim Compensation Scheme and Compensation Scheme for Women Victim/ Survivor of Sexual Assault/ Other Crimes-2018, seeking a compensation of Rs 19 lakhs in February this year.
The application for compensation was forwarded by the Department of Women and Child Development to Delhi State Legal Services Authority which had sent it to South district DLSA, however, no action has been taken by the authorities so far.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
