Loot and scoot bride racket continues to flourish

BHIWANI: As vulnerable Haryana youths continue to be taken in by 'loot-and-scoot' brides, the government authorities are considering keeping a record of brides being brought to the state from other states. This would help the police to keep a tab on unscrupulous brides as well as to track gangs involved in human trafficking to protect innocent women and girls hailing from other states.

According to reports, gangs involved in forcibly bringing girls as well as bands of cheat brides have been flourishing in Haryana, which has a wide gap between men in the marriageable age vis-a-vis women due to low sex ratio.

In a recent incident, a 35-year-old man Kailash Kumar of Kungar village in Bhiwani district was lured by a woman who married him and then decamped with cash and jewellery from his home soon after marriage. Kailash, a daily wager, has lodged a complaint with the police in this regard. His wife Meena Devi, from Katkarkila village in Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh is untraceable. Kailash told the TOI on Wednesday that after failing to find a bride for himself in Haryana, he started looking for a match in other states by asking people known to him to find a bride for him. A person from Bhiwani approached him with an offer of marriage and the wedding was solemnized on January 30.

"All was going smoothly till I found my wife missing from our room on Monday night at about 3am. I looked for her in our house and later, I launched a hunt to trace her in the village along with my family members. We inquired about the middleman involved in the marriage too but he too couldn't be traced. We later found that Meena had taken Rs 45,000 and some jewellery with her before fleeing", Kailash said. The Bawani Khera SHO Dharamchand Yadav said they had no clues about the whereabouts of the bride so far.

According to police sources around 15 such incidents were reported from across the state last year and these brides have not been traced so far. "These women in fact seem to be part of a racket wherein gangs lured gullible males from the state who have crossed the marriageable age but still wanted to settle down in life," said a police source.

Additional director general of police (ADGP) B S Sandhu told TOI that in view of repeated reports of human trafficking, besides cases of loot-and-scoot brides coming to light, the police was considering taking some measures. "We have a proposal to keep a record of brides hailing from other states at the local police stations concerned across the state. It will help the police to deal with complaints related to them," he said, while adding that a decision is likely to be taken in a couple of days.

Jaswanti, a woman activist who runs a shelter home for destitute women and children in Rohtak maintained that apart from loot-and-scoot brides, the incidents of trafficking of girlsincluding minors were quite glaring. "If the police and the district authorities with the help of local panchayat keep track of brides coming from outside the state, it will also help in checking incidence of trafficking," she said. TOI

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801 kids rescued from railway stations

HYDERABAD: Government Railway Police(GRP) have rescued 576 boys and 225 girls from various railway stations in the state in 2011. 

Additional director general (Railways) V S K Kaumudi, in an official release issued here on Tuesday, said besides the children, five women and 16 beggars were also rescued. Of the total people rescued, 750 were from various railway stations in Hyderabad. 

"In one case, a two-year-old girl was found abandoned in the washroom of Tungabhadra Express in Secunderabad on September 22, 2011. The girl was later shifted to Shishu Vihar. Her mother identified the child's photo flashed by the media and went to Shishu Vihar to take the baby," Kaumudi said. TOI

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Falak tragedy: A tale of Bride trafficking

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Odisha tribal girls rescued from Bengaluru

Malkangiri (Odisha): Ten tribal girls of Odisha's Malkangiri district, who had been taken to Bengaluru and Chennai by a middleman on the pretext of lucrative jobs, have been rescued and brought back here, police said today. 

The tribal girls, aged between 13 and 16 years, were rescued from Bengaluru railway station by a special police team of Malkangiri and brought back here yesterday, inspector in charge of Malkangiri police station Ramakrushna Pati said.

The girls, who hailed from Nalagunti, Sudhakonda and Telrai areas of Malkangiri district, had been taken by the middleman on January 19, he said adding the police team was sent to rescue them following an information by Bangalore police who spotted the girls at the station. 

The girls were produced before District Children Welfare Committee after their return and sent for medical examination. The parents of the girls have been informed about the development, Pati said. 

Narrating their experience, the girls told the police that they had been kept in a room and not given proper food. 

They were being shifted to some other place from Bengaluru when the local police spotted them at the railway station and then informed Malkangiri police. 

Bengaluru police arrested one middleman, Balleya of Bhadrachalam in Andhra pradesh, while efforts were on to nab another person, he said. 

District Children welfare committee president has been informed about the incident. 

PTI

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Human (bride) trafficking a thriving business in Rajasthan

JAIPUR/ALWAR: Munni Devi, the woman who was picked up by the Delhi police from Rajasthan for abandoning a two-year-old battered baby, who is admitted to AIIMS Trauma Centre, was staying in a village in Jhunjhunu district for nearly three months. She was sold off to a man here for Rs 2.5 lakh by a human trafficking gang.

Munni Devi is not an isolated case of girls being sold in the area. The two key suspects in the battered baby case- Rajkumar and Kanta Bai - have a case registered against them with the MIA police station in Alwar district.

"The case was registered in August 2010 in which both had been accused of selling a girl to someone," said a senior police officer. source

"On August 16, one Ali Akbar from West Bengal had approached the then Alwar SP Alok Vashishta claiming that he had married off his daughter Shayara to one Anees, a resident of Mia police station area in Alwar. Over a period of three years, the girl was sold to four different people. Anees first sold her to one Vikki who further sold her to Kanta Bai. The woman then sold her to Rajkumar and finally Shayara was bought by one Jagmohan. The police recovered the girl from Jagmohan," the officer said. Shayara was later produced in a court and then handed over to her father.

Rajkumar and Kanta Bai are registered as husband and wife in the complaint. While Rajkumar was arrested by the police and later released on bail, Kanta Bai had got an anticipatory bail.

Such gangs are active in Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi. Most of these girls belong to Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam from where these gangs abduct or buy them from their parents. They are either forced into prostitution or made to marry an older man.

Several first information reports (FIR) have been registered with the police across the state which point at the thriving business of selling girls for money.

In Alwar district alone, at least six cases of girls being sold had come up in 2010. Add to that, several cases that go unreported everyday.

"The masterminds behind these gangs are mostly residents of Mewat region in Rajasthan which includes Alwar district. In some recent cases, those involved in the racket have turned out to be drivers. Parents sell their girls in Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam for Rs 20,000 to Rs 50000. Then, they are brought to Rajasthan and other states including Haryana and Delhi," a senior police officer said.

The gang members marry the girls, rape them and then after some time sell them off to a buyer at a higher price.

"In some cases, it has been found that the owners of dhabas and hotel owners situated on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway play the role of mediators in selling the girls to the third party," the officer added.

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Bride-buying an old practice in north India

Bride-buying is an old practice in this region. It declined after the Green Revolution owing to the spread of literacy in this part of the country. Moreover, the male-female ratio has improved in the past 80 years. The ratio was highly skewed in 1911.

Before Partition there used to be Jind House at some distance from the railway station at Ambala. Adjacent to it was an “adda” where women were offered for sale after sunset. People from various parts of this region, especially the Malwa belt, used to flock to the “adda” to buy women or say “brides”.

Dehra Dun was another centre where poor women were offered for sale. Besides, there was sale of women in certain parts of Orissa from where people of this region used to buy brides.

Contrary to general impression and reports of female foeticide etc, the male-female ratio has been constantly improving in Punjab since 1911 when there were only 780 women against 1,000 men. From 799 in 1921, the number of women against 1,000 men jumped to 882 in 1991. However, it declined to 874 in 2001.

Bride-buying has been confined to either poor farmers or the Scheduled Castes and tribes.

Mr Sarwan Singh Bir, a historian from the Malwa region, says he visited the Ambala “adda” a few months before Partition along with a friend, Mr Kunda Singh from Katarsingh Wala village, to have first-hand information. A woman then was available for Rs 600 to Rs 1200 at the Ambala “adda”. Some agents, in fact, used to cheat poor farmers as they would replace younger girls with older women after striking deals.

However, Mr Kirpal Kazak, a Punjabi writer, says the practice of sale of women started in this region after the arrival of Mughals. Mr Mir Dad, an Arab writer, has stated about the sale of women in his book “Niami”.

Mr Kazak says during the Mughal period only women offered for sale, used to don ornaments. Ornaments were used to decorate women before sale. The wearing of ornaments became a fashion in due course of time.

Punjabi literature is replete with references of sale of women. There is a full-fledged Punjabi book “Mul di Tiveen” (A purchased woman). Then, there is Punjabi mini novel “Kudesan” (a woman from other land) dealing with this subject. Dalip Kaur Tiwana, a celebrated Punjabi Writer, devotes a chapter to the sale of “Bhano” to Sarwan in her Sahit Akademi award-winning Punjabi novel “Eh Hamara Jeewna”. Bhano revolts against polygamy, which was prevalent at that time in certain parts of the Malwa region. Money was contributed by Sarwan and his brothers to buy Bhano. However, Bhano refused to be the wife to all brothers, saying that she had been married to Sarwan and would stay only with him. Ultimately, Sarwan was killed by his brothers.

Dalip Kaur Tiwana says the ritual of bride-buying was limited to the poor sections of society.

Mr Bhupinder Singh, Head of the Sociology Department at Punjabi University, says that in poor families, only one son used to be married. Besides poverty, the other reason to get only one son married was to avoid the division of landed property. Mr Ajmer Aulakh, a playwright, has extensively dealt with this issue in his play — “Ik Hor Ramayan.”

One can find even now in almost every Punjab village women from Burma or China. Certain Punjabi soldiers, who fought World War I and World War II in Burma brought women of Burmese or Chinese origin when they came back to their villages. As they had to stay for long in Burma, Singapore and Malaya etc, they married these women. Punjabis marry off their daughters to boys, who either have landed property or other sources of income. They rarely give their daughters to “loafers” who, as a result, resort to bride-buying.

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Two actors rescued from brothel

CHENNAI: Two supporting actresses wererescued from a brothel during a raid by anti-vice squad (AVS) sleuths in Vadapalani on Wednesday. A woman was arrested for running the racket. 

An AVS policeman posing as a customer first called up the pimp. After a deal was struck, the decoy was asked to come to a shopping complex in Vadapalani. He was then directed to a nearby house where Lakshmi (33) showed him two girls from Andhra Pradesh. Immediately, AVS sleuths in plainclothes caught hold of the woman and rescued the girls. 

The pimp and the two women had worked as junior artists in several movies, police said. Of late, they added, pimps were accommodating girls in ladies' hostels fearing raids in hotels and lodges. The arrested woman was remanded in judicial custody. Source

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