A police officer in Bengal became a father on Republic Day in 2021. But he could not be by the side of his wife and the newborn because he was on the heels of alleged traffickers in Mumbai.
His resolve, a young woman’s will and the coordination between agencies based in two states yielded results earlier this week. A court sent five men to jail for trafficking a girl to Mumbai, confining her, raping her multiple times and forcing her into prostitution.
A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act court in Diamond Harbour, South 24-Parganas, convicted the five on Tuesday and announced the punishment on Wednesday.
“I am the father of a girl. I could not hold back tears when I heard about the judgment,” said Shaquib Shahab, the investigating officer of the case who is now posted in Birbhum.
The chargesheet was filed in February 2021 and the trial, delayed by Covid curbs, commenced in early 2022. But once it started, the trial was speedy, something that is rare in trafficking cases.
The usually dismal rate of convictions points to the absence of a robust mechanism to investigate human trafficking cases, which often span across state borders. “The case shows what proper coordination between different agencies can achieve,” said Deb Ranjan Banerjee, the special public prosecutor in the case.
“The police here were proactive. They got timely assistance from Mumbai Police and Maharashtra Police. A handful of NGOs worked in tandem. Most importantly, the survivor showed exemplary courage in standing up to intimidation and cash offers to give false deposition,” Banerjee said.
The convicts are Salamat Gayen, Mithu Laskar, Rudwik Kumar Yadav, Saharukh Molla and Baleshwar Gupta. The first three were sentenced to a 14-year jail term and the other two a 10-year jail term.
They were convicted under a variety of sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 370 (trafficking), 370A (child trafficking), 373 (buying a minor for prostitution), 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping a woman to compel her into marriage or illicit sexual intercourse), as well as under Section 5 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Pocso Act.
Based on conversations with the cops, lawyers and social workers involved in the case, this newspaper lists a sequence of events that led to the convictions:
• The survivor left home following a feud with family members. She was sitting at a local temple when Saharukh Molla approached her. A familiar face, Saharukh took the girl to his home and kept her there for a few days before taking her to Mumbai with the lure of a job.
• Gayen, also a resident of South 24-Parganas and the owner of a zari unit in Mumbai, received them at a railway station and took the girl to the factory. She was confined there and raped multiple times. She was then sold to Laskar, an auto driver and a supplier to Gupta and Yadav, who ran a prostitution racket. Yadav owned a parlour in Dahisar East, a northern suburb of Mumbai.
- Between 2019 and 2020, the girl twice tried to escape their clutches but failed. The third time, she fled and bumped into a cop who helped her. She was taken to a shelter home run by Rescue Foundation, an NGO in Pune.
- The survivor was brought to a shelter home in Bengal on a Mumbai court’s order inlate 2020. An FIR was registered at Mandir Bazar police station, in South 24-Parganas, on the basis of a complaint lodged by her father, in January 2021.
- Saharukh was the first to be arrested in the case. He led the cops to Gayen. Both were picked up from South 24-Parganas. Laskar, who had returned home because of Covid and took up work at a factory in Howrah’s Sankrail, was nabbed next.
- Shahab, the investigating officer, travelled to Mumbai. With the help of local police and NGOs, he tracked the cellphone locations of Gupta and Yadav. The two were arrested on January 26, 2021, and brought to Bengal on transit remand.
Vaibhav Tiwari, who was the superintendent of the Sundarban police district when the chargesheet was filed, told this newspaper: “Special credit must go to Shahab, who did great work as the investigating officer. The survivor also showed exemplary courage and stood up to threats.”
Koteswara Rao, the present superintendent of the Sundarban police district, called the conviction a result of “team effort”.
The survivor, now in her 20s, also battled stigma but never shied from the fight. She looked her tormentors in the eye during the test identification parade. “Her testimonies in court were also very helpful,” said special public prosecutor Banerjee.
“She cried after the verdict,” said Kakali Das, of Goranbose Gram Bikas Kendra, the NGO that is mentoring her.