SALE OF WOMEN TO VILLAGERS

 - Rape arrest exposes buying of wives in Guj; 2 girls rescued

Mateen Hafeez

Mumbai: 



In a case of abduction and sale of girls for forced marriage, a 26-year-old Gujarat resident was arrested by the city police for buying and raping a 22-year-old city woman. The police also rescued two 17-year-old girls. The two girls were rescued from a village in Gujarat where the woman and the two minors were sold for Rs 1 lakh each. The village, Bakrana near Ahmedabad, has a shortage of women and cases of kidnapping from other places for marriage are common, said the police.

 All three victims were lured with the promise of jobs in Gujarat but were forcibly married to people they did not know. The arrested man was identified as Ganpat Patel. “The 22-year-old woman and the two girls were contacted by a Kalyan resident, Meerabai Salve, who promised to help them get a job in Gujarat in a catering firm,“ senior inspector Sunil Kavalekar of the Pydhonie police station said. “The trio was paid Rs 1 lakh each as advance payment.“

After being there for 15 days and being raped, the 22year-old survivor managed to flee. A team comprising assistant police inspectors Fareed Khan and Tukaram Nimbalkar, sub-inspector Smita Parab and five constables then left for Gujarat to rescue the two girls still there.

“The villagers gathered there and tension prevailed,“ one of the officers said. “We had to seek help from the local police.“ The police also invoked sections of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act in the case.





THE TIMES OF INDIA, APRIL 18, 2015