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Journalism of Courage
A 15-year-old girl was rescued from a brothel in central Delhi’s GB Road area Friday night after a 25-year-old customer sent a message to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) via a social media site. Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa said police have registered a case under charges of rape, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and trafficking of the IPC based on the complaint. “We are conducting an investigation into the case,” he said.
In the message, the man — who had visited the area a few days ago — said the girl had been forced into prostitution at the age of 11. According to the DCW officials, the owner had allegedly heard the two of them talking and had beaten them up.
The man then decided to approach the DCW via their Facebook page. DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal said the man wrote that he wanted to share some personal information. He was called to the commission’s office, where he disclosed that the girl was being kept in the brothel against her will.
In a joint operation, the Delhi Police along with DCW members raided the brothel and rescued the girl.Officials said the owner of the brothel, who is a woman, had told the girl to say she was 20 years old and was in the profession by choice whenever there was a raid.
When police raided the premises on Friday night, the girl was carrying a child in her arms which she initially claimed was her daughter. Police sources said the police team and DCW officials brought the girl to the Kamla Market police station, where she told them the truth.
The DCW said the girl, a resident of Bihar, used to live with her aunt as her parents died when she was nine. One day, she was kidnapped and brought to Delhi. “The brothel owner initially sent the girl to stay with her daughter-in-law. When she turned 11, she was brought back to the brothel and asked to entertain her first customer. The victim said when she refused, she was tied to a pole and brutally beaten up. She was then raped by five different men and forced to sleep with customers every night,” a DCW official said.
According to the girl’s statement, she had tried to run away from the brothel many times but was caught. “The owner had installed CCTV cameras everywhere in the brothel, including in the rooms, to keep a tab on the girls and their customers. As a result, the girl could not escape and was beaten up every time she tried to,” a DCW official said. The DCW said the girl, in her statement, has said she wants to take legal action against the owner.
Stating that minor girls are regularly sold and forced into prostitution at G B Road, Maliwal said, “The whole racket is flourishing right under the nose of the establishment. Parliament is just 3 km away and a police chowki is just 100 mts from where the brothels operate.”
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