A 14-year-old girl trafficked from Assam over two months ago and sold to a 50-year-old man at a village in Hisar in Haryana as a sex slave for around Rs.1 lakh has been rescued in a joint operation by the local police and non-government organisation Shakti Vahini. The trafficker has been arrested.

The girl was not just sexually exploited, but also tortured by having hot water poured on her and her hands scratched with blade. She was rescued on Tuesday and is now at a Children’s Home.

The girl was kidnapped from her native place two months back by one Safiqul and sold off to Dharmender in Hisar. All though she was told by her perpetrators that the man would marry her but she was kept confined in the house where Dharmender used to exploit her sexually and physically. She was kept like a sex slave and was forced to do all the household chores from mending buffaloes to cleaning and cooking during the day time and sexual exploitation at night.

The NGO members’ conversation with the child revealed that she was brought to Delhi by Safiqul and his acquaintances and initially they kept her at a hotel near Jama Masjid in Delhi for a week, when Safiqul too exploited her sexually. After a week Dharmender approached Safiqul who then sent her along with him to Hisar.

She told the NGO team that Dharmender used to beat him up, scratch her hands with blade and pour hot water on her to torture her.

When the team first met the child during the raid, she hugged the woman counsellor when she found the counsellor speaking Assamese and mumbled, “Moi eyat nathaku. (I won’t stay here),” with tears rolling down her eyes. The raid was conducted following a tip-off by the Assam Police.

Assistant Commissioner of Police of Jalukbari, Madhurima, told The Hindu over phone that the girl managed to call her family from a landline number and the matter was reported to them. “We then traced the call to Hisar in Haryana and alerted the local police and Shakti Vahini. Safiqul has been arrested, but three of his accomplices are on the run,” said Ms. Madhurima.

“Minor girls, mostly Muslim, from West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand and Orissa are trafficked to states like Haryana where there is skewed sex ratio and are sold off to middle-aged men as slaved brides. In most of the cases the identity of these girls, from their names to cultural traits, is changed,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini.