First, today's The Telegraph : The perseverance of an unlettered stepmother, the helping hand of a lawyer’s clerk and the caring instincts of a judge and the insistence of the court jolted Bengal police to launch a hunt that took them to the girl who was sold for Rs 5,000 by a trafficker.
A CID team from Calcutta, with the help of Delhi police, rescued a “traumatised” Yasmin Khatun (name changed), now 16, from a hideout in west Delhi’s Begumpur today.
“The girl was rescued from a house in a raid carried out jointly by our team and Bengal police early today. She had been kidnapped and kept in a house in Begumpur,” Ashok Chand, deputy commissioner (crime branch) of Delhi police, said.
Nishan Pervez, special superintendent of police, CID, said his team had confirmed that the girl was the same person reported missing from Kakdwip in South 24-Parganas.
P. Nirajnayan, IG, Bengal CID, said the girl was “traumatised” and had been sent for medical examination.
Plucked away by a gang of traffickers, Yasmin’s story is testimony to the free run gangs of traffickers enjoy in Bengal’s poverty-ridden villages.
Yasmin would have remained another piece of the cold statistics that say 2,500 teenaged girls disappear from Bengal every year but for the combined efforts of an unlikely group of people brought together by the persistence of her stepmother Johora Bibi.‘I knew our daughter would come back’
Sumati Yengkhom | TNN Dec. 17, 2010
Kolkata: On April 15, 2009, Tahira Khatun had gone to a village fair — barely 200 metres from her home at Balikhal in Kakdwip, South 24-Parganas — never to return. Her sisterin-law, Jasmira Biwi, returned home late in the evening and told the family that she could not locate Tahira in the crowd.
The family launched a manhunt in the village that very night. A few locals, such as Mohiuddin Biwi, told the family that they had seen Tahira getting into a Maruti Omni around 10.30pm. They also spotted one Kaus Mir and Anwar Bhangi (all from the locality) bundling her into the vehicle, along with one Kashmira Biwi who is allegedly involved in the flesh trade racket.
Suspecting that Tahira would be pushed into flesh trade, the girl’s father, Khater Visti, filed a diary the next day with the Dholahat police and lodged a complaint against six local residents, accusing them of kidnapping the girl.
When police failed to fetch any information on Tahira for about two months, the family moved the Kakdwip ACJM court with a writ petition in June. As no one in the family is literate, they were being assisted by Rafique Ahmed Darjee, a lawyer’s clerk. At the same time, the family knocked on the doors of senior police officers, including the Kakdiwp SDPO and the district SP. They even went to the state women’s commission.
The agony at not finding her daughter hit her mother Samira Biwi very hard. Samira was already suffering from mental illness. Her condition deteriorated after Tahira went missing. Samira had stopped communicating with anyone. She occasionally asked when her daughter would come back home. Moved by her plight, Tahira’s step-mother Johra Biwi (Khater’s second wife) stepped in and moved Calcutta high court in July 2009.
“I could not bear to see Tahira’s mother suffering silently. Moreover, I brought up Tahira myself due to her mother’s mental condition. She was just a few months old when I got married. She was very attached to me,” Johra said.
Though some of the accused were arrested, police failed to trace the girl, adding to the family’s agony.
The matter was finally transferred to the court of the chief justice in April this year and was subsequently treated as a PIL In September. In a landmark judgment, the high court directed the director general of police (DGP) to trace and produce the girl by November 12.
Tahira was finally traced in Delhi on Thursday. State ADG (law and order) Surajit Kar Purakayastha said a team from the state CID and the Delhi Police had been able to trace the girl.
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A Follow-up : First, from today's (18th Dec.) The Telegraph and then ToI
- ‘Tortured, humiliated and brainwashed’
New Delhi, Dec. 17: Kidnapped and sold last year and rescued from Delhi yesterday, 16-year-old Bengal girl Yasmin Khatun says she doesn’t want to return home for fear of ostracism.
Consumed with shame and misplaced guilt at the “different” life she has led for the past year and a half, Yasmin (name changed) has told police and social workers she has “grave doubts” about ever being accepted by the people of her South 24-Parganas village, Balikhali.
“She is both traumatised and humiliated,” said Bengal CID inspector Sarbari Bhattacharya, the leader of the police team that came to Delhi to rescue the Kakdwip girl who was abducted in April last year.
“She told me she doesn’t want to go back to Bengal because she is unsure how she would be received. She wants to remain in Delhi. The traffickers who brought her to Delhi have brainwashed her into thinking that she would be humiliated and taunted by her own people if she ever returns home.”
Tomorrow, the Delhi government’s child welfare committee (CWC) will counsel Yasmin and try to dispel her fears. At some point of time, Yasmin may have to travel at least to Calcutta, whose high court has asked the police to produce her.
CWC chairperson Neera Mallick, however, said: “The girl needs counselling at least for the next six months before she is exposed to the world.”
Inspector Bhattacharya said the traffickers would torture Yasmin every time she said she wanted to return home, and had brainwashed her into thinking that after her life in Delhi, she would be an “untouchable” back in Bengal.
“She is confused,” Bhattacharya said. “Sometimes she smiles and sometimes she suddenly starts crying.”
Over a period of time, the officer said, Yasmin began believing she would never be able to leave and began accepting her life in Delhi. Her tormentors then started tutoring her in etiquette and the social graces, and bought her expensive dresses, to transform the rustic girl into a “lady of society”.
“I was surprised last night when, while having dinner, she suddenly asked for a napkin,” Bhattacharya said. “I never expected that from a village girl. But I quickly realised that the traffickers had been grooming her. The room we rescued her from had an air-conditioner.”
Rashi Aditi Ghosh, of the NGO Shakti Vahini, who had accompanied the police on the raid to rescue the girl, too said that Yasmin had told her she didn’t want to “go back to her baba and maa”.
“She said she was disgusted with her father’s foul behaviour. She seemed confused and may not be telling the whole truth.”
It’s not clear what Yasmin has against her 61-year-old father Khater Bhisti, a fish seller, but she owes her freedom to her unlettered stepmother Johora Bibi who, faced with initial police apathy, fought a lone crusade to take the battle to the high court.
Ghosh said her NGO had helped rescue many trafficked girls and that she did not find Yasmin’s behaviour unusual. Having accepted their new life, especially the “material comforts” that come with it, many of the girls are reluctant to return home.
“Yasmin is ashamed of the life she has been forced to lead but, at the same time, she has grown used to the comforts. In this confused state she may be trying to find excuses not to return home,” Ghosh said.
“Many girls we have rescued have behaved in this way, but she needs counselling and someone she can open her heart to.”
For now, Yasmin is staying at Nirmal Chhaya, a home for girls run by the Delhi government’s social welfare department.
Rescued girl doesn’t want to go home
Alleges Sexual Abuse By Kin; NGO Says Story Could’ve Been Fabricated To Avoid Poverty
Sumati Yengkhom & Dwaipayan Ghosh | TNN
Kolkata/New Delhi: For more than a year, Johura Biwi fought relentlessly to get her step-daughter home. In fact, it was the grit and determination of this illiterate-but-feisty village woman that led to Tahira Khatun (16) being finally traced. Otherwise, the minor girl from this nondescript village called Balikhal in Kakdwip subdivision of South 24-Parganas, would have remained untraced like scores of girls who go missing from the state every year. Tahira, who was trafficked and sold in Delhi, was rescued on Thursday during a joint raid by Delhi Police and a CID team from the state.
When Tahira went missing on Aprli 15 last year, her father Khater Vishti had filed a missing complaint with Dholahat police station. But in a few weeks, the fisherman, in his 60s, got busy with work as he has to feed the family. And since Tahira’s mother Samira Biwi suffers from mental disorder, it was left to Johura, in her late 30s, to take up the fight.
“From kitchen to court, it has been a long journey. I had hardly ventured out of the village till I dragged myself out as I knew I had to find our daughter back. Going to the police station was frightening initially. Then I got going with the support of the family,” said Johura who is Khater Vishti’s second wife.
The news that Tahira has been traced has brought a lot of relief to the family. They are now waiting for Tahira to come back home. Her mother Samira Biwi specially is getting impatience.
But Tahira has reportedly expressed that she does not want to go back home. In a startling revelation, the girl is believed to have told her counsellor Rashi Aditi Ghosh in Delhi that a close relative had tried to exploit her sexually earlier. Though she admitted that she was sold off by the accused in Delhi, she is apparently not comfortable with the idea of going back home.
However, there is a high probability of Tahira cooking up stories of this sexual exploitation to avoid going back to poverty. According to Delhi-based NGO Shaktivahini that had provided the counsellors for Tahira, the girl who reportedly is stunningly beautiful, apparently has been making good money. Though she did not operate from red light areas, Kadir, who bought her, possibly had been supplying her to high-profile clients.
“Easy and good money seems to have gone into her head. And it is quite natural for a girl of her age, who is yet to be mature enough to understand what’s good for her and what is not. There is a high chance of the girl fabricating the story of some relatives trying to sexually exploit her so that she is not sent back home. The girl needs counselling,” said Rishi Kant of Shativahini.
The girl, who could not even get a square meal back home, now reportedly wears branded clothes and accessories. In two years, the gullible village girl has reportedly transformed into a big city girl who lives life on the fast lane.
According to what Tahira has told Ghosh, she had willingly accompanied her sister-in-law Jasmina on April 15, 2009, when the latter promised her to take her to the fair. “At the fair, she met Kalam — a resident of Park Street in Kolkata — and followed him as he promised her security from her abusive relative. On the way to Kolkata, Kalam allegedly offered her a soft drink laced with sedatives. The next thing she remembers is that she was on a train to Delhi. She was sold off to Azhar for Rs 6,000,” said Ghosh.
Delhi crime branch officers said later, Kadir and Azhar fell out over the share of money. “Kadir was demanding more money for the girl and Azhar sold her for the second time to avoid a confrontation with Kadir,” said the investigating officer.
Cops said the “lead” in their search for Tahira had come after they managed to arrest Kalam from Park Street. They nabbed Azhar after forcing Kalam to call him up and tell him that he had brought “two beautiful girls” from Bengal and wanted to sell them. “Two woman members of the NGO acted as decoys and we arrested him as soon as he tried to escape,” said a senior officer.
Cops said Azhar was a “rich” man who holds several bank accounts on fake identities. Police are now probing whether Azhar’s two wives – one in Hyderabad and the other in Meerut — too were involved in the all-India trafficking racket. “We are also looking into possible links of Azhar in bringing 53 girls from Jharkhand, Bengal and Bihar to the Capital for prostitution just before the Commonwealth Games,” added a crime branch officer.
Azar left Delhi for Kolkata by Rajdhanai Express on a two-day transit remand on Friday evening. However, it might take a couple of days for Tahira to be brought to Kolkata. The Child Welfare board in Delhi is expected to finalise the date on Saturday.
The Telegraph keeps following up.
New Delhi, Dec. 18: Yasmin, the Bengal girl rescued here on Thursday, today said she preferred her “new life” to the poverty and hunger that awaited her back home, shining a light on causes that underpin trafficking and the challenges ahead of rehabilitation agencies.
Yasmin (name changed), 16, also confirmed that her relative Kashmira Bibi had handed her over to traffickers.
“Ghar jaane se achchha hai yahan pe mar jana (better to die here than return home),” the girl, kidnapped from Kakdwip in April last year, told The Telegraph in fluent Hindi.
Yasmin said she had grown used to the comforts of her life in Delhi’s “party circuit”, learnt Hindi and forgotten to speak Bengali in these 20 months, and now called the couple who had bought her “Papa” and “Mummy”.
In her village of Balikhali in South 24-Parganas, “hunger stares one in the face”, she said. “I will die of starvation there. I’ve got used to a life of comfort after sacrificing a lot; there’s no point going back.”
She is also afraid of stigma: “People will laugh at me and make up stories about me…. Now I hate my village and its people.”
Yasmin will, however, have to board the Rajdhani Express tomorrow with Bengal CID officers and will be reaching Calcutta on Monday morning to be presented before the high court. She spoke to this newspaper at Banga Bhavan shortly after counselling by the Delhi government’s child welfare committee (CWC), which cleared her journey to Bengal.
CWC chairperson Neera Mallick said a traumatised Yasmin needed counselling and “a lot of care and affection” for six months before she could be rehabilitated.
“It now depends on the Bengal government how they provide counselling and other facilities to help her return to normal life. If they fail to do so, the girl could return to the world her tormentors had thrown her into.”
Yasmin said her sister-in-law’s sibling Kashmira had handed her over to a man called Kalam, who brought her to Delhi, sexually abused her in a hotel and sold her to Azhar.
She was finally sold to a couple whom she addressed as “Papa” and “Mummy”. The husband, Pappu, groomed her in manners and etiquette, showered her with gifts and gave her a new name: Julie.
“There were five other girls. A woman gave us Hindi lessons. We were given expensive clothes and good food. I loved my air-conditioned room; I drank only mineral water. I would go to a lot of parties and have been to big hotels too. After a few months, I accepted the new life like the other girls,” she said.
“They (Pappu and his wife) have given me a lot and I want to go back to them.”
Pappu went into hiding after Thursday’s police raid netted Azhar and rescued Yasmin.
Yasmin said she had recently met a man from Moradabad, who had promised to marry her after two years. “He owns a mutton shop. I want a happy life, not a life like the girls at my village have.”
She said her father Khater Bhisti, a 61-year-old fish seller, was a harsh man and had pulled her out of school after Class III, fearing she might run away with somebody. “I wanted to continue studying....”
Did she miss her village? “I have a very close friend, Mohitan, there... but she would have been married off by now.”
One day last year, after her father had behaved particularly badly with her, Kashmira had promised to find her a job outside Bengal.
“She told me my father and stepmother hated me,” said Yasmin, who has been rescued thanks to her illiterate stepmother’s unyielding crusade against police apathy.
On April 15, 2009, Yasmin was returning home after watching a circus when Kashmira introduced her to Kalam, who was waiting on a motorcycle, and asked her to go with him, Yasmin said. “I didn’t know he would sell me off.”
Kalam, a 32-year-old Calcuttan, rode straight to Howrah station and boarded a train with her, saying he would find her a job. In Delhi, he took her to a hotel, spiked her soft drinks and assaulted her, Yasmin said. “I wept a lot that day.”
The next day, she was sold off to Azhar. “They (Azhar and his associates) tortured me. When I wanted to go back to my village, they threatened to kill me.”
Kalam, arrested in November on trafficking charges, had helped the police arrest Azhar here on Thursday. Both reached Calcutta today with a CID team. Azhar will be produced in Kakdwip court tomorrow.
Azhar, who wore Versace woollens and Nike sneakers, has allegedly told the police he had contacts across Bengal who would traffic girls to him.
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