Bombay High Court orders Maharashtra Police to trace two missing sex trade victims

One of the girls was a minor and the elder victim had taken her custody as neither of them wanted to stay with the welfare committees. Both the girls have been missing from the last six months.

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Bombay High Court orders Maharashtra Police to trace two missing sex trade victims
Bombay High Court.

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday ordered Maharashtra Police to trace two girls missing from Delhi, who had been victims of a flesh trade racket. The girls were not related to each other but were staying together after being brought out of a sex racket trade.

One of the girls was a minor and the elder victim had taken her custody as neither of them wanted to stay with the welfare committees. Both the girls have been missing from the last six months.

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The division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Revati Mohite Dhere was hearing a petition filed by lawyer Anuja Kapur from Delhi asking for the investigation to be moved out of the Pune Police and to be handed over to the central investigating agency CBI.

Kapur told the court that the older victim, is a girl from West Bengal and worked in Delhi as a model. She had been lured by a woman in Goa on Facebook on pretext of a modeling assignment but was later sold off to a man named Rohit Bhandari in Pune. Regarding the minor girl, the lawyet told the court that she was a resident of Nepal and had been lured by Bhandari himself and her virginity was sold in lakhs to men in Pune.

Both the girls had managed to escape after two years of torture and with the help of Kapur, a zero FIR was registered in Kotla Mubarakpur Police Station of south Delhi. The cases were transferred last year to Chandan Nagar Police Station and Viman Tal Police Station of Pune.

POLICE INVOLVED

Kapu, however, alleged that the minor girl had told her that the investigating officer and a few other officers had been her clients and even at the time of recording her statement the policemen were showing her the revolver and threatening her. "These police officers are Santosh Jagtap and Sanjay Kurundkar, who are right now in court," the lawyer told the court.

On pointing this out, Justive More asked the public prosecutor Mankuwar Deshmukh as to "why these police officers were on duty when their names are in the statement?" Responding to this, Mankuwar told the court that a senior woman officer of the rank of ACP had also investigated the case but "since she was not available, so they are here."

Kapur also added that Pune Police had already filed a chargesheet in the case and summons were issued by the court. However, summons have returned as no one was in the house.

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The lawyer pointed out to the court that the girls had been under immense threat from Pune policemen involved in the racket. As their lawyer, Kapur too had received threat calls from these policemen and had registered a case with Model Town Police Station of north Delhi. Justice More on hearing all this said, "We are worried about the girls." Justice Dhere added, "Sincere efforts must be done to find the girls."

The court also appointed senior advocate Mihir Desai as amicus currae in the case as Kapur said that she would not be able to travel to Mumbai for every hearing.

The court also ordered a senior officer above the rank of DCP and the Maharashtra advocate general to appear in the case on next date of hearing which is on March 31.

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