Arrested men allegedly supplied girls to “prospective grooms” in UP

Around a dozen girls were allegedly abducted from Delhi’s railway stations over the last eight months and sold off as brides in some UP districts with skewed sex ratio.

The girls were being sold for as little as Rs.40,000-60,000 to men who were unable to find wives.

The role of a couple, Arvind and his wife Anjali, in the abduction and sale of these girls emerged during police investigations. Subsequent raids led to the arrest of Arvind and two men who had bought a girl each and forcibly married them off.

The police have also rescued two victims, including a minor, who were married off. Seven other victims have been identified and efforts are on to trace and rescue them, said Ravindra Yadav, Joint CP (Crime).

The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch stumbled upon this trafficking racket while investigating the disappearance of two Jharkhand sisters from Old Delhi railway station on October 5. This 19-year-old girl and her cousin were allegedly kidnapped from the station. Police traced the 19-year-old girl last Thursday after she secretly managed to make a phone call informing about her location in Muzaffarnagar.

She revealed she had been forced into marriage with one Sandeep from whose home she was rescued. While Sandeep has been arrested, the girl’s cousin is yet to be traced.

Police said the couple was working at the behest of a notorious Muzaffarnagar-based criminal Ravi Pandit. Police raided the possible hideouts of the couple and managed to arrest Arvind. Pandit remains on the run.

Arvind confessed to around a dozen such kidnappings and forced marriages.

At his instance, a team was rushed to another village in Muzaffarnagar from where a 14-year-old girl was rescued and her “husband” Narender was arrested.