AURANGABAD: The Hadgaon police in Nanded have booked eight people after a 17-year-old lodged a complaint that she was sold thrice by her father to different men over the past two years. The father, a casual worker, is among those booked.
Besides the father, police have booked the girl’s stepmother, the three men she was sold to, a woman pimp in Rajasthan and two others. They have been booked under various charges including rape, selling person as slave, selling or hiring a minor for prostitution, forgery and for causing miscarriage of a woman without her consent. Police have also slapped sections of the Protection for Children from Sexual Offences Act on the eight suspects.
Nanded additional superintendent of police Vijay Kabade told TOI, “The minor was recently rescued by her aunt — her biological mother’s sister — and other relatives from a Satara-based man. The girl had managed to contact her aunt over the phone. Prima facie, it appears that the father would sell her to make money.”
Kabade said the girl was first sold to a man in Kota, Rajasthan. This deal was effected in Aurangabad when the girl’s father had come there in search of work. Hence, a zero FIR has been registered in the case which has been forwarded to the Aurangabad city police.
When contacted, MIDC Waluj’s senior inspector Sandeep Gurme confirmed having received the FIR. He said the survivor’s statement has been recorded before the court, her medical examination done and a search launched for her father, stepmother and the others.
In her complaint, the girl said that when she was in the eighth standard about a couple of years ago, she was sold to the Kota-based man through a woman pimp. She was in Kota for a month, during which time she was given drinks laced with sedatives and repeatedly raped. After she fell ill, she was brought back to Hadgaon.
She said that her father then sold her to a 45-year-old man from Nandurbar for Rs 2 lakh, payable in instalments. This man raped her for eight months, she alleged. Her father brought her back after the man failed to pay the last instalment of the promised money.
She said that sometime later, she was sold to a 40-year-old man from Satara, where she was raped for months. She was rescued from here after she contacted her aunt.
