Delhi Commission For Women rescues trafficked girl from Jharkhand

The Delhi Commission For Women on Sunday said it has rescued a teenage girl from central Delhi's Rajender Nagar, who had been trafficked to the national capital as a 9-year-old and was allegedly raped multiple times.

According to the Delhi Commission For Women (DCW), the girl was trafficked from Jharkhand when she was nine-years-old.

The Commission's 181 helpline received a call from the girl's father who said that he had been looking for his daughter, who was trafficked from Jharkhand many years ago and that he had information about her present location, the DCW said.

The DCW team met the survivor's father in Moti Nagar. He told the team that the girl was presently staying with a woman and that he knew her coordinates, it said.

The team went to the location and met the woman who claimed that she had recently brought the girl, currently aged 16-17 years, from Rohini in north west Delhi. She said the girl has been sent to a shelter home operated by an NGO.

The DCW, however, found that there was no NGO at the location mentioned by the woman.

The women rights body finally found the girl from New Rajinder Nagar. The girl was working as a domestic help there and the place was a private residence and not a shelter, it said.

The girl was later taken to Rajinder Nagar Police Station.

The teenager was counselled by the DCW team and during the counselling, she informed that a person from her village had lured and brought her to Delhi years ago. She was first sold off to a trafficker and was allegedly raped by several men. She was able to recount the name of some of her violators, the DCW said.

The girl was later sold off to a family in Punjabi Bagh where she worked as a domestic help for several years. She said that she was raped there as well. After this, she was sent to a house in Rohini Sector 11. A placement agent had also allegedly attempted to rape her, the Commission said.

"The girl is unable to recollect any memories of her childhood and also unable to tell her age. She was also unable to recognise her father and did not want to go back with him. The girl was taken for a medical examination and then shifted to a shelter home," the DCW said.

A senior police officer from central district said a case has been registered under sections of rape and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The girl's statement is being recorded before the court and further investigation is underway, he said.

"We have been rescuing girls trafficked from Jharkhand, almost every alternate day. It shows the gravity of the problem of trafficking in our country, DCW Chief Swati Maliwal said.

It is my appeal to the Centre to make stringent laws against trafficking and take measures to regulate the functioning of these private placement agencies. The perpetrators of this heinous crime need to be punished. We will ensure rehabilitation of this girl, she added.