Delhi: A girl who was sold twice in two months, for marriage had been rescued three days ago from a home in south Delhi’s Mahipalpur, police said.
15-year-old, hailed from Central Delhi’s Anand Parbat and was married to Vishal.
Four others including Vishal have been arrested.
Meenu, Tara Chand and Ram Kishore alias Kale trafficked the minor and Vishal married her. He kept her at his Mahipalpur home, said police.
This gang sold girls of poor families in Delhi as brides in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab where there is a shortage of brides due to a skewed sex ratio.
The girl was first sold to Baljeet, a 45-year-old resident of Haryana’s Mewat, for Rs 90,000 in August-September. A month later, Baljeet committed suicide since he was pressurized by the traffickers to pay more money.
He was depressed because the traffickers pressured him to pay Rs 1 lakh for helping him get a wife, police said.
The traffickers threatened to take away his bride if he did not pay and to implicate him in a false rape case. “Since Baljeet was a farmer from a poor financial background, he was not able to arrange the amount. He chose to kill himself,” said a senior police officer.
After Baljeet’s death, the traffickers brought the girl back to Delhi, telling Baljeet’s family and neighbours that she was upset over her husband’s death.
Back on their way, they kept her at Tara Chand’s relative’s house in Haryana, as they looked for another customer to sell her to.
When they failed to get any customer, they brought her to Delhi where she was married to Vishal, another relative of Tara Chand. He was charged around Rs 70,000, police learnt.
“The minor was rescued and the four were arrested when police investigated a kidnapping case filed by the girl’s family at the Anand Parbat station,” said Chinmoy Biswal, Additional Deputy Commissioner- Police.