On July 14, we received a lead for a 12-year-old girl who was being sexually exploited in a private brothel in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. We immediately made plans to rescue her.
On the morning of July 15th, we met with the Allahabad Commissioner of Police. He was busy and asked us to return the next afternoon. In an attempt to accelerate a rescue, we called the Assistant Police Commissioner, ACP. He did not pick up. We called the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, but he was out of town.
We were concerned that the brothel keeper would relocate the little girl, making her impossible to find, so we contacted everyone we could think of to quickly rescue her.
At about 2:45 p.m., we proceeded to meet the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, AHTU, but the officer we hoped to meet with was absent. We called the Special Juvenile Police Unit, SJPU, and told him about the 12-year-old victim and our multiple visits to various police officials. He said he would return to his office in 30 minutes and told us to meet him there.
We met the SJPU in his office and discussed rescue strategies. He said he would utilize the local police to conduct a rescue. Although we were concerned about a tip-off from the local police to the brothel, all we could do was hope for the best.
On July 15, at 5:33 p.m., the police and our team raided the brothel and rescued two victims, 12-year-old Sabita and 26-year-old Ruki. We found three others at the brothel: a male pimp, a female brothel keeper, and the male owner of the house. Amidst the chaos of the rescue, the pimp escaped, but the police arrested the brothel keeper and the house owner. The police blamed each other for allowing the pimp to escape. We called the ACP and told him what had happened; he called the police and fired them for allowing the pimp to get away.
The police collected evidence from the brothel: new and used condoms, money, beer bottles, and mobile phones. They then interrogated the female brothel keeper. She disclosed that she bought girls from Kushinagar (181 miles from Allahabad) and sent them to brothels in Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Gorakhpur, Mirzapur, and Lucknow. We requested that the police treat 26-year-old Ruki as a victim and not as an accused. They told us they would do everything according to the law.
On July 16, at 2 a.m., the police completed filing the First Information Report. We ensured that it included relevant sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses), ICP (Indian Penal Code), and ITPA (The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act) attached.
The following morning, we returned to the police station to obtain a copy of the First Information Report. While examining it, we noticed that the police had omitted the name of the accused, Anita. She was the primary person responsible for the prostitution racket. The police had also recorded Ruki as an accused. Additionally, some of the IPC sections were also not included in the FIR.
We reported these findings to the ACP, and he said the police had conducted these reports according to the law because the case was still under investigation and that they would make the necessary changes as the investigation progressed.
12-year-old Sabita stayed in a one-stop center for the night, then she was taken to her medical tests. After her medical test, she was produced before the Child Welfare Committee. Because Ruki was listed as an accused, she remains in police custody. When we met Ruki, she was crying and in deep distress. We are following up on her case and will continue to fight for justice for these victims.
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