Delhi Police appear to be dragging their feet after the rescue of yet another domestic help from a home where she was ill-treated.
The minor girl, who was allegedly kept under illegal confinement and made to work as help for over four years, was rescued from her employer's house in north-west Delhi's Pitampura on Tuesday. But the householder is yet to be put behind bars.
The girl is about 15 years old.
A case has been registered under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave) of the Indian Penal Code with Subhash Place Police station.
Normally these sections lead to immediate arrest of the accused. But that has not been done in this case.
When this was pointed out to him, a senior police officer said, “Sometimes the victim detracts from his statement, so we want to wait till the statement of the victim is recorded in front of the magistrate.”
“Tomorrow we will produce the victim in front of the magistrate and if the girl doesn’t change her statement, the accused will be arrested,” he told Deccan Herald on Wednesday.
Legal experts say if a case under these sections is filed it can only be withdrawn in the court. So the question of not arresting the accused does not arise, or he should at least have been detained.
The girl was brought from Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal by a neighbour and sold to a placement agency — Hemanshu Enterprises in Shakurpur in 2009.
The victim’s father came to Delhi many times to take her daughter back but the agency did not tell him where the girl was. Last month, he contacted a child rights group — Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA).
“We got to know from a source that the girl was sold to a household in Kohat Enclave in Pitampura for Rs 25,000. She was promised Rs 1,500 per month but she has not been not paid anything till date. We approached police and informed them about the situation,” said chairperson of BBA R S Chaurasia.
“Police said they raided the house but the girl was not found. But we kept insisting that the girl is there and on Tuesday she was rescued from the same place.”
“The girl said she was not allowed to go out of the house. She never went out of the house during this whole time,” Chaurasia said.
He added that police’s job does not end with just rescuing the victim. “They should also insure that the culprits is punished.”
The girl was produced before the Child Welfare Committee, Kingsway Camp. It ordered sending the girl to a children’s home in Burari. The panel has estimated the back wages to be over Rs two lakh.
Chaurasia said, “The accused should be arrested so that justice is meted out.”