Delhi police busts trafficking racket which sold young women from Bengal to men looking for brides in Haryana

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) R S Yadav said those arrested were Syed Ali alias Raju, Ram Bhavan, Rita, Ashok and Pramod. Raju (29) is alleged to be the kingpin. “Raju belongs to West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district and moved to Delhi about 12 years ago,” said Yadav.

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The police said the rescued women and girls were bought by men aged above 50 and made to work as labourers on their farmlands. “The women were from extremely poor families,” said a senior police officer.

Yadav said that after being brought from West Bengal, the women were allegedly kept at Bhavan’s house before they were sold. The police are looking for his wife, Lakshmi, who has been named as a co-accused in the case.

Raju allegedly told the police that they would change the names of the victims, mostly Muslim women, and give them Hindu names before they were sold. The police are also probing if lawyers and clerks at notary offices helped the accused procure marriage documents.

The police swung into action after a 24-year-old woman escaped from her captors in Haryana on August 5 and approached an NGO in Delhi. The complaint was lodged at the Chanakyapuri police station and the case handed over to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Crime Branch. “The woman told the police that her 17-year-old cousin too was brought to Delhi with her and then sold. Both of them were allegedly abducted from near the Raiganj railway station in Uttar Dinajpur district, where they had gone to buy medicines from a store,” said Alok Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime).

Kumar said they were allegedly given sedatives by the abductors, who befriended them and brought them to Delhi. They were kept allegedly at Bhavan’s house. The 24-year-old woman was allegedly sold for Rs 80,000. “During investigation, the police first arrested Bhavan on August 8, who led the police to Rita and Raju. Following their arrest, the police zeroed in on those to whom the woman were allegedly sold in Rewari and Jhajjar districts of Haryana,” said Kumar.

Later, the police raided two more villages in Mahendragarh and Rohtak districts. The probe into the trafficking racket has revealed that Raju, the alleged kingpin, had been arrested earlier also from West Delhi’s Khyala area in a human trafficking and rape case. He was released on bail in that case.

“During questioning, Raju told the police that he targeted women from poor families and brought them to Delhi by promising them marriage. He would even pay money to their parents. Once they were brought to Delhi, they would be kept at addresses in

East Delhi’s Mandawali and Central Delhi’s Patel Nagar,” said a police officer.

According to the 2011 census, the number of women in Haryana was 879 per 1,000 men (sex ratio), which is much below the national average of 943.