Rape victim spots trafficker in court in quirk of fate

New Delhi, Oct 24: A man landed in the police net in a case of trafficking and forcing a girl into prostitution when the victim spotted him in the court where she had come to testify against the brothel owners to whom she was sold.

Izraful alias Raju was identified by the 18-year-old victim, a native of West Bengal, who had accompanied him to Delhi after he made a false promise of marriage and was forced into prostitution. When the girl was rescued from the brothel, cops from Kamla Market police station had arrested three women brothel owners -- Pooja, Razia and Chanda -- and a case of rape, buying and selling minor for the purpose of prostitution was registered against them.

Izraful, however, could not be traced and he was made only a suspect in the charge sheet. The case was sent for trial before Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja.

In the meantime, Izraful was arrested by Burari police in another case of trafficking and the matter also reached the same court for trial. Earlier this month, the girl appeared in the court of ASJ Baweja to record her statement. Incidentally, the trafficking case in which Izraful was being tried was also put up for the same date.

During her deposition, the girl narrated that she had studied upto class V and about one--and-a-half years ago, a man named Raju assured her that he will marry her and induced her to accompany him to Delhi. He then sold her to a brothel where she was forced to establish physical relations with many men.

While narrating the events, the girl told the judge that she saw Raju some time ago in the courtroom in custody of the police and he is the same man who had brought her to Delhi. On this, the judge noted that the man she was referring to as Raju was, in fact, Izraful and he had been brought before the court in another case the same morning.

On court's directions, Izraful was brought back from the lock-up immediately. The girl identified him as Raju and the court ordered that he be arrested in the case in which the girl is the victim. He was booked for immoral trafficking, rape, kidnapping, wrongful confinement besides other related offences.

PTI